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STELLAR KEY 

TO 

THE SUMMER LAI^D. 



BY 



ANDEEW JACKSON ' DAYIS, 

AUTnoc OF "nature's divine revelations,'' "haemonia," "arabula," 

AND OTHER VOLUMES ON THE '' HARMONIAL PHILOSOPPIT." 



PAET I. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH DIAGEA^IS AXD EXGEA7IXGS OF CELESTIiL 
SCEXEET. 

"1867 

WILLIAM WHITE & COMPANY, 

15S WASHINGTON STEEET. 

NEW YORK: 
BANNER OF LIGHT BEANCH OFFICE, 544 BEOADWAT. 

1867. 

V 



<^^ 



-^>^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1S6T, by 
ANDREW JACKSOX DAVIS 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
District of New Jersey. 



McCkea & Miller, Stereotypers, 
15 Yandewater Street. 



^^N .Explanatory SSord. 



This volume is designed to 
FURNISH Scientific and Philo- 
sophical Evidences of the Exist- 
ence OF AN Inhabitable Sphere 
OR^ Zone among the Suns and 
Planets of Space. These evi- 
dences ARE indispensable, BEING 
ADAPTED TO ALL V^HO SEEK A SOLID, 
RATIONAL, PHILOSOPHICAL PoUNDA- 
TION ON V^THICH TO REST THEIi^^ 
HOPES OF A SUBSTANTIAL EXISTENCE 
AFTER^ DEATH. 

/■ !■ ?■ 

New York, 
December i5th, 1867, 



CONTENTS OF PART I. 



CHAPTEK I. 

PAGE 

Of the Xatueal axd Spiritual Uxiyerses .... 5 



CHAPTER II. 

lilMORTAL ;MiXD LOOKIXG IXTO THE HeATEXS . . . . 11 

CHAPTER in. 
Defixition of Subjects uxder Coxsideeatiox ... 16 

CHAPTER lY. 
The Possibility of the Spiritual Zoxb . . . . 18 

CHAPTER Y. 
The Zoxe is Possible ix the yery jSTature of Tnixas . . 23 

CHAPTER TI. 
The Spiritual Zoxe Yeetted as a Probability . . „ 31 

CHAPTER YII. 

EVIDEJrCES OF ZoXE-FORilATIGXS IX THE HeITEXS . . .ST 

CHAPTER YHI. 
The Sciextific Certaixty of the Spiritual Zoxe . . .45 

CHAPTER IX.' 
A Yeetv of the "W^oRKixa Forces of the Uxiyerse - . 50 

CHAPTER X. 
Prixciples of the Formatiox of the Summer Land • . 64 



vill COISTENTS, 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

Demonstrations of the Harmonies of the Uotverse . .77 

CHAPTER XIL 
The Constitution of the Summer Land . . . . ,101 

CHAPTER Xni. 
The Location of the Summer Land 131 

CHAPTER XIY. 
A Philosophical Yiew of the Suj^imer Land . . . 148 

CHAPTER XY. 
The Spiritual Zone Among the Stars 158 

CHAPTER XYL 
Trayeling and Society in the Summer Land . . .163 

CHAPTER XYII. 
The Summer Land as seen by Clairvoyance . . .184 

CHAPTER XYITI. 
Synopsis of the Ideas Presented ...... 149 



A STELLAR KEY, 



CHAPTER I. 

OF THE NATTJEAL AND THE SPIRITUAL UISIVERSES. 

The discovery and announcement of that wonderful 
and interminable relationship between the material 
universe and the spiritual universe — a relationship 
founded in the immutable laws of existence, by which 
things visible are bound by the ties of fertile sympathy 
to realms of causation invisible — could not but astonish 
and delight the boldest poetic imagination, and excite 
the opposition and ridicule of those skeptics who rely 
for what they term " positive knowledge," upon the 
industry and testimony of their five bodily senses. 

The discovery of the law of Gravitation, notwith- 
standing its far-stretching penetrations into the pro- 
foundest secrets and fixed operations of the great 
Positive Mind, was not a thousandth part as important 
and world-lifting as was the disclosure of an inhabitable 
and a really inhabited belt of solid spiritualized matter 
in the heavens, adapted to the new bodies, and new 
senses, and new necessities, of men, and women, and 
cliildren, who are born on this planet, gi.nd who unfail- 



6 A STELLAR KEY. 

ingly witlidraw from it through the process called 
" Death." 

Like thankful children, bending in reverential grati- 
tude beneath the unutterable glory of the Central Sun 
— the throne, so to speak, of the all-loving Mother and 
omniscient Father of All — we approach the repositories 
of ideas and essences, and ask for such facts and such 
illustrations as can be seen and admitted by philoso- 
phers and skeptics of the most materialistic habits of 
thought. We seek for data in the recognized fields 
of positive knowledge, for scientific facts and recent dis- 
coveries in matter, which shall serve as stepping-stones 
for the millions, whereby they can, intellectually and 
rationally, gain a clear vision of spheres celestial and 
heavenly. 

The world-cheering discovery of the shining belt, to 
which I have alluded, has arrived by degrees ; coming 
through the hazy glimmerings of man's intuitions from 
remotest ages ; stealing with beneficent mysteriousness 
through the hopes of mankind ; seen like the light of a 
distant taper shining through openings in thinnest 
clouds ; felt in the reasonings and wonderful generaliza- 
tions of astronomers ; beheld by the entranced poet and 
by the inspired artist as a permanent reality beyond the 
starry confines; contemplated by analogical reasoners 
as a capacious Existence — adapted to, and yearned for 
by the immortal mind — a world swimming somewhere 
in space, where star or planet never rolled; demon- 
strated to the senses of spiritualists by " sounds," not 
uncertain, like the voices of distant waters heard through 
a landscape unknown, but distinct and positive^ telling 
of a home for you and for me in the solemn abysses of 



THE SPIRITUAL UKIVEESE. 7 

gspaco ; and, Lastly, looked upon by the bright eyes 
of independent clairvoyants, who have discerned its 
constitution, read its sublime mysteries, disclosed the 
grandeur of the planetary mechanism, described the 
illustrious beings who repose there in contemplation, 
and the thronging hosts, also, who, with human affec- 
tions and infinitely diversified attractions, people that 
substantial and eternal sphere, not built with hands, in 
the bosom of the heavens. 

The relationship and sympathy between the orbs and 
spheres of immensity — between this world of humanity 
and that better world of humanity arisen — are recog- 
nized naturally and inevitably by man's intuitions and 
reason. It comes like a gleam of glory sent into finite 
minds from the Central Sun ; and he is unreverential 
to truth, not to say wicked and dogmatic, who turns 
away from it with contempt. " Man is immortal," is 
the world's affirmation. "Is it otherwise possible in 
the government of the Universe ?" asks a writer. 
" Shall the material thing, inorganic, inert, imper- 
cipient, move on in this wondrous perpetuity ; and 
shall the soul which discerns its order and tracks its 
career, and detects its laws and speculates on its consti- 
tution, be swept aw^ay as nothing before it ? Shall 
unconscious matter last, while the mind, to which alone 
its functions are subservient, which interprets its mys- 
teries and reads them in the signature of Grod, vanish 
like the passing wind ? Shall the knowledge and the 
thoughts of men be handed down in endless genealogy, 
teaching and inspiring the soul of other times ; and 
shall the conscious creature which called them into 
being be blotted ignominiously from creation ? Impos- 



8 A STELLAE KEY. 

sible! It cannot be but that tbej, ttrougli the 
medium of whose thought we now gaze at the skies, 
witness elsewhere the excellence of their past toils, the 
triumplis of their studious meditations. Sm-ely the 
Heavens which they deciphered, they behold with eyes 
undimnied by age, and minds yet yearning, but in a 
spirit of profounder adoration, to press forward toward 
vaster disclosures of the infinitude of God !" 

Looking far into the ages past, and making the labo- 
rious march of man's history with regard to his acqui- 
sition of positive knowledge, I find accurate conceptions, 
more or less mixed with the reflections of superstition 
and the colorings of fancy, of the realities pertain- 
ing to a higher sphere of human existence. At 
first it was natural for the individual mind to be nar- 
row in its conceptions, because its views were mainly 
derived from outward observations of the skies. But 
now, at an era when the human race is no longer in its 
infancy, the individuars reason can take in purer senti- 
ments and larger conceptions, derived from discoveries 
of those unchangeable laws and principles which sustain 
and regulate the stupendous combinations of infinite 
harmonies. The Intuition of past generations, like the 
totality of the Reason of those now living, gives out 
no conflicting testimony on the ■physical jjossihility of 
an inhabitable sphere or zone of spiritualized matter in 
space, called recently the Summer Land. 

It is no dream, remember, but a demonstration con- 
summated at the lower end of Herschel's telescope, 
that scattered through the measureless expanse of blue 
ether, but in the very perfection of order and harmony, 
are groups of stars and systems of suns, occupying in 



THE SPIRrrUAL rXITEESE. 9 

tlie heavens positions whicli are, to the unarmed ere, 
covered and filled with onlv boundless fields of nebn- 
Ise. Scientific astronomy, bv its marvelous discoveries, 
lias thus expanded men's minds with respect to the fir- 
mamental magnitudes and planetary s]3lendors of the 
material nniverse. The cosmos^onies of illimitable 
space are fast coming into popular education. It is 
now conceded, even by anthropomorphists and otlier 
unprogressive religionists, that instead of the earth 
being at the center of God's universe, and instead of 
the doings and omissions of its denizens being the chief 
concern and perpetual misery of the entire Trinity, our 
sun and its planets belong to the Milky TTay not only, 
but that the Milky "N^^ay itself is merely 6>7?^ communi- 
ty of suns and planets of an infinitude of similar sys- 
tems and communities that fioat and sing the songs of 
liarmony, in the celestial atmosphere of the univercoe- 
luin ! "^ TThere are we, after all,'' asks an astronomer, 
^' but in the center of a sphere, whose circumference is 
35,000 times as far from us as Sirius, and beyond whose 
circuit boundless infinity stretches unfathomed as ever. 
In our first conceptions, the distance of the earth fi^om 
the sun is a quantity almost infinite. Compare it with 
the intervals between the fixed stars, and it becomes no 
quantity at all, but only an infinitesimal. ]aow, when 
the spaces between the stars are contrasted with the 
gulfs of dark space separating firmaments, they abso- 
lutely vanish below us. Can the whole firmamental 
creation, in its turn, be only a corner of some mightier 
scheme — a mere nehula itself? Probably Coleridge is 
not in error: — ' It is not impossible that to some infi- 
nitelv superior Beino; the whole universe mav be as one 
1* 



10 A STELLAE KEY. 

plain — the distance between planet and planet being 
only as the pores in a grain of sand, and the spaces 
between system and system no greater than the inter- 
vals between one grain and the grain adjacent !'" 

The stupendous character of the truths thus far 
unfolded by astronomy must act beneficially upon the 
human mind. But it is my impression that the resolu- 
tion of the nebulae of immensity into millions of suns, 
with their attendant minor systems of inhabitable plan- 
ets and uninhabitable satellites, asteroids, and comets, is, 
notwithstanding its amazing, and engrossing, and over- 
whelming vastness and sublime beauty, nothing more 
than a look within the vestibule of the Eternal Temple ! 
The measureless systems of stars and suns, which roll 
and swim and eddy and waltz about in their harmonial 
circles, shine upon landscapes more beautiful, and into 
eyes more divine than om^s ! 



LOOKINa INTO THE HEAYEjSTS. 11 



CHAPTER II. 

BOIORTAL MIND LOOKING INTO THE HEAVENS. 

In accordance witli the imperious law of attraction — 
a law whicli is as palpably felt and manifested in mind 
as in matter — the thinking powers energetically force 
their way through space, and find a stand-point from 
which they can contemplate the sublimity and reality 
of trans-mundane lands of human existence. The 
starry heavens awaken and invite the inmost, intensest 
love of immortality. The deep-seeing philosonhical 
faculties of man's Reason will not, because they can- 
no't, stop with the limitations of the five senses. The 
principles of nature flow into the intuitions of the rev- 
erential, free, untrammeled student. They teach him 
to think industriously, and to march onward and 
upward ; and if he be conscientious, a devout lover of 
what is exactly true and exactly just, Nature will keep 
him within the legitimate sphere of logical reasoning. 

The Scottish philosopher, who found true apprecia- 
tion after he had entered the societies of arisen human- 
ity in the starry heavens, Dr. Dick, when considering 
the possibility of a higher world of human life, says : 
'^But there are certain general and admitted principles 
on which we may reason, and there are certain phe 
nomena and indications of design exhibited in the struc- 
ture of the universe, from which certain general con- 
clusions maybe deduced; beyond such generalities I 



12 A STELLAll KEY. 

do not intend to proceed, nor to indulge in vain con- 
jecture." 

From the magnitude and harmonious arrangements 
of the stellar uniyerse, the philosopher derived conclu- 
sions, that, on the planets in space, which circle around 
their parent suns, other persons like ourselves really 
could and do exist. His enlarging thoughts and figures 
are : '' If this earth, which ranks among the smaller 
globes of our system, contains such an immense number 
of living bodies (30,000,000,000,000), what must be the 
number of sentient and intellectual existences in all the 
w^orlds to which we have alluded ! "We are assured, on 
certain data, that 2,019,100,000,000 worlds may exist 
within the bounds of the visible universe ; and, although 
no more beings sliould exist in each world, at an aver- 
age, than on our globe, there would be the following 
number of living inhabitants in these worlds, 60,573,- 
000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ; that is, sixty quadrillions, 
five hundred and seventy-three thousand trillions, a 
number which transcends human conception." 

" We would now ask, in the name of all that is 
sacred," continues this philosopher, '' whether such 
magnificent manifestations of Deity ought to be con- 
sidered as irrelevant in the business of religion, and 
Vv'hether they ought to be thrown completely into the 
shade, in the discussions which take place on religious 
topics, in the assemblies of the saints. If religion con- 
sists in the intellectual apprehension of the perfections 
of truth, and in the moral efi*ects produced by such an 
apprehension, shall Vv^e rest contented with a less glori- 
ous idea of God than his works are calculated to aff'ord ? 
Perhaps som.e may be disposed to insinuate that the 



LOOKING rS'TO THE HEATEXS. 13 

views above stated are above the level of ordinary com- 
prehensions, and founded too mucli on scientific con- 
siderations, to be stated in detail to a common audience. 
To any insinuations of this kind it may be replied, that 
such illustrations as those to which we have referred 
are more easily comprehended than many of those ab- 
sti'act discussions to which they are frequently accus- 
tomed : since they are definite and tano-ible, beino^ 
derived from those objects which strike the senses and 
imagination." 

The far-stretching powers of the human mind appear 
grandly in the contemplations of this mountain philoso- 
pher. How energetically did his thinking faculties 
grasp the fundamental idea of an open intercom-se be- 
tween the inhabitants of the two worlds ! " Whether 
we may ever enjoy an intimate correspondence with 
beings belonging to other worlds, is a question which 
will frequently obtrude itself on a contemplative mind. 
It is evident that, in our common state, all direct inter- 
course with other worlds is impossible. The law of 
gravitation, which unites all the worlds in the universe 
in one grand system, separates man from his kindred 
spirits in other planets, and interposes an impassable 
barrier to his excursions to distant regions, and to his 
correspondence with other orders of intellectual beings. 
But in the present state he is only in the infancy of his 
heing ; he is destined to a future and eternal state of 
existence, where the range of his faculties and his con- 
nections with other beings will be indefinitely expand- 
ed. ' A wide and boundless prospect lies before him,' 
and during the revolution of interminable duration, he 
willj doubtless, be brought into contact and correspond- 



14 A STELLAR KEY. 

ence with numerous orders of kindred beings, with 
whom he may be permitted to associate on terms of 
equality and of enduring friendship. But sliould the 
laws of the physical system, and the immense distances 
which intervene between the several worlds, prevent 
such associations as I have now supposed, there may l)e 
another economy, superior to the physical, which may 
consist with the most extensive and intimate intercourse 
of all rational and virtuous beings. There may be a 
spiritual economy established in the universe, of which 
the physical structure of creation is the basis, or plat- 
form, or the introductory scene in which rational beings 
are trained and prepared for being members of the 
hierher order of this celestial or intellectual economv. 
It appears highly probable that the first introduction 
of every rational creature into existence is on the scene 
oi 2i physical economy." 

Thus, natui-ally and philosophically, the free reason 
of man works at something approximating to the celes- 
tial truth of an inhabitable belt, the Summer Land, so 
gloriously demonstrated in this more favored age and 
receptive country. In one place this philosopher ex- 
claims : '^ Oh, could we wing our way with the swiftness 
of a seraph, from sun to sun, and from world to world, 
until we had surveyed all the systems visible to the 
naked eye, which are only as a mere speck in the map 
of the universe — could we, at the same time, contem- 
plate the glorious landscapes and scenes of grandeur 
they exhibit — could we also mingle with the pure and 
exalted intelligences which people those resplendent 
abodes, and behold their humble and ardent adorations 
of their Almig'ity Maker, their benign and condescending 



LOOKDvG IN'TO THE HEATEXS. 15 

deportment toward one another—' eacli esteemino- an- 
other better than himself '—and all united in the bonds 
of the purest affection, without one haughty or discord- 
ant feeling— what indignation and astonishment would 
seize us on our return to this obscure corner of creation." 

Thus, dimly, but energetically and assuredly, a pro- 
found belief in the wondrous system of the relationship 
and sympathy between the terrestrial and celestial 
spheres of existence, burns its way deeply into the 
thinking powers of men's minds. A mighty and myste- 
rious unity of plan is revealed, with boundless diversi- 
ties and orderly perturbations, all moving onward to- 
gether through the ever-deepening depths of infinitude, 
teaching the human mind reverentially to look up, 
contemplate, and unfold in wisdom and love. 

But inasmuch as it is not the object of these chapters 
to recount the evidences of immortality, the reader is 
referred, for a full investigation of man's efforts to 
satisfy his mind on the subject of a future life, to the 
Great Harmonia, Yol. Y., Part III., wherein both the 
inferential and the positive evidences are revealed to 
the thinkino; faculties. 



16 A STELLAR KEY. 



CHAPTER III. 

DEFINITION OF SUBJECTS UNDER CONSIDERATION. 

To every intelligent, rational, existence-loving mind, 
the question naturally and plainly occurs : ^' Is there a 
substantial world for human beings to live in after 
death ?" 

Hope and faith give light and peace to minds of fine 
sentiments and intuitive sensibilities. But to the hard- 
headed and sensuous positive thinker, the light of 
'^hope" is valued as only an ignis fatuus^ and the 
peace of " faith " as the delusive dream of weak and 
idle minds. Beautiful as is faith, and comforting as is 
hope, to those to whom these internal evidences of 
immortality are sufiicient, they have no weight with 
those who look upon the universe as a mechanism 
developed by no intelligence outside of the inherent 
principles of life and motion. It is to meet the needs of 
this class, especially, that the evidences will be unfolded 
and weighed under several distinct heads : — 

First. The Possibility of Summer Land in the 
heavens ; 

Second. Its Probability in the structure of the Uni- 
verse ; 

Third. Its Certainty^ as demonstrated by the arrange- 
ment and order of the Stars ; 

Fourth. Its Formation^ in the shape of a stratified 
belt of matter ; 



DEFINTION OF SUBJECTS. 17 

Fifth. Its Constitution of materials drawn from the 
inhabited planets; 

Sixth. Its Location among the systems and constella- 
tions in the sky. 

Under the impression that, with the positive philoso- 
phers of our day, all clairvoyant testimony would be 
invalid, I am constrained, in order to prosecute the 
design of this work, to proceed wholly from an induc- 
tive stand-point. There is an inherent force in truth, 
however, which carries it straight and triumphantly 
into man's understanding, if it is so fortunate as to be 
presented free from the cumbrous and imposing super- 
stitions and embarrassino: atheistic loo'ic of the times. 
The august and harmonious temple of the universe, if 
entered by man with a reverential love of truth in his 
heart, is sure, though slowly, to open mansion after 
mansion, and glory after glory, to the welcomed visitor. 

All minds sincerely desirous of true knowledge, can 
seek and find it in those harvest-fields of the celestial 
realm, which stretch away, and are lost to the imagina- 
tion, but not to the logical reason, beyond suns and stars 
in the boundless blue. And it is to aid such minds in 
their faithful searchings, that these chapters are now 
written and submitted. 



IS A STELLAR KEY. 



CHAPTER lY. 

THE POSSIBILITY OF THE SPIRITUAL Z0:N'E. 

In this chapter it is proposed to approach the subject 
from the outermost rim of the wheel of inductive rea- 
soning. The subject under investigation is embodied 
in the following affirmation : There is an inhabitable 

ZONE, OR A CIROrLAR BELT OF REFINED AND STRATIFIED 
MATTER IN THE HEAVENS WHICH RECENTLY HAS BEEN 
DENOMINATED ^' ThE SuMMER LanD.'' 

The possibility of the existence of this material belt 
in the Stellar Universe is to be considered, in this part 
of our work, as though there was no such a power as 
'^clairvoyance," and no such manifestations as '' spirit- 
ual." All evidences, therefore, however irresistible 
and sacred to those who believe in these realities, are, 
in this stage of our inquiry, to be ''ruled out," as not 
valid to the positivists and inductive reasoners who, we 
are now supposing, compose the honorable assembly of 
rio-id investio^ators before us. 

The name of " Man " was, I think, derived from 
certain Greek roots which signify "to spring up," "to 
look up," or to grow and rise upward. Therefore many 
ages ago the Greeks, inspired by the genius of truth, 
made the discovery that mari is organized for progres- 
sion, which is the " real" meaning of the word " Man.'' 
Accordingly, if men would be true men, they must, in 
the language of Kepler, "think the thoughts of God 



THE SPIEITUAL Z02sE. 19 

after him." Sucli thinking, which is the grandest attain- 
ment of education, the most divine and ennobling con- 
summation of deep and methodical reasonings is possible 
only to those who think and reason in harmony with 
the facts of Science and the fixed principles of jSTature. 

Superficial high-mindedness, or the positiveness of 
ignorance and the pride of knowledge, seal the soul to 
the influx of God's Spirit and Wisdom. A heart that 
can love truth, as fast as the honest reason discerns it, 
and a conscience that will firmly and steadily steer life's 
barque in harmony with such feeling and such convec- 
tion, are vast riches to their possessor. The overarching 
heavens come very near, in their gracious light and 
serene beauty, to the mind and heart that is attuned to 
their unchangeable ways. Brightness, penetration, 
celerity, calmness, and comprehensiveness are some of 
the characteristics of the Stellar Universe. " To think 
the thoughts of God after him," would be, in astron- 
omy, thinking in accordance with the interior forces 
and the harmonious manifestations thereof in the visible 
universe. Dull minds sleep behind dull senses; but 
star-eyed persons possess minds shining full of heavenly 
splendors. 

But it is not possible, for manifold causes of a purely 
extrinsic character, that all minds should come in imme- 
diate rapport with the fundamental or ]3rimitive founts 
of knowledge. Hence, in the words of a modern scholar : 
'' TTe must try to get the best of Greece and of Eome, 
by rapid study of the genius of the languages, and by 
grasping the wealth of the literatures ; and what we 
have no time to get by minute study of the originals, 
we must seek by lectures of erudite scholars, and by 



20 A STELLAR KEY. 

readinfy. In our want of time to seek knowledi^-e in 
all tlie old j&elds, it is a consolation to know that tlie 
treasures of the ancient languages float down the stream 
of time, and are lodged in the new literatures. Goetlie 
and Lessing, in Germany, were almost as much Greeks 
as if they had lived with Pericles at Athens. ISText to 
having read all of Cicero, is to read Forsyth's Life of 
Cicero ; or all of Epictetus, is to be familiar with Hig- 
ginson's translation ; or all of Antoninus, is to know 
Long's paraphrase. . . . A great change has come; 
the world has moved forward ; the nations have come 
closer together ; modern languages have become neces- 
sary to the intelligent citizen for travel, trade, and 
acquaintance with the world's affairs and tlioughts. 

'^ And then, how wonderful the rise and progress of 
science in these last fifty years. Astronomy stood 
almost alone as a science in the last century. Chem- 
istry was breaking out of its chrysalis, the old Alchemy, 
and crude thoughts of cosmogony, and of the plants and 
animals, made a chaos of knowledge, void and formless. 
And now think for one moment of all these sciences 
that have presented such various and interesting fields 
of inquiry and thought ; each one so vastly enlarging 
and enriching our life, and each opening a new path- 
way to the mysterious agencies of God's creation and 
providence." 

We ask the world's thinkers and scholars to step out 
of the old into the " new pathway " that leads to the 
" mysterious agencies of God's creation and providence." 
But science can know nothing of "the mysterious 
agencies of God." What it knows, it knows ; all the 
rest is speculation. But by speculations and calcula- 



THE SPIRITUAL ZONE. 21 

tions based upon what science knows, a world of knowl- 
edge has been acquired in astronomy, in chemistry, in 
geology, &c. Why, upon the same principles of induc- 
tiye reasoning and inferential conjecture, may not 
greater results be obtained in higher departments of the 
uniyerse ? Astronomers, chemists, geologists, ethnolo- 
gists, and other physicists, haye obtained some of their 
best results by following perturbations, slight effects, 
hints, and signs, and the world does not denounce these 
scientists as dreamers and \nsionaries in the airy realms 
of hypotheses ; on the contrary, they are justly regarded 
and gratefall}^ remembered as well-disciplined mathe- 
maticians, as accurate thinkers, as men of profoundest 
erudition, and as benefactors of mankind. 

The possihility of the existence of the stratified Zone 
in the heayens, may be considered with reference to the 
structures and locations of the different solar systems 
in space. Of course a thing is often esteemed as pos- 
sible^ which is neither certain nor eyen probable; in 
fact, logically, both the improbability and the uncer- 
tainty of a matter is implied in its '* possibility." It is 
possible that eyery person on earth may, within one 
year, belieye in the existence of the stratified Zone ; 
but it is not remotely probable, and falls infinitely short 
of a certainty. When a thing or an eyent does not 
contradict the known laws of the possible, then men 
say, " it may be so," or, " it may exist," or, "' it may 
happen ;" but, in so saying, the imjpro'ba'bilities and the 
imcertainties are understood as implied by the JDrimary 
admission. There is a jpossibility that a shower of 
falling meteors may occur at ten o'clock this nighty or 
that a great earthquake will sink the entire western 



22 A STELLAE KEY. 

continent day after to-morrow ; but tliere is no certainty 
of it, and, judging from the usnal conrse of nature, 
tliere is not even '* tlie most distant probability " that 
any such earthquake will ever happen on this planet. On 
the other hand, it is logical to say, positively, that some 
things and events are absolutely '' impossible." Proba- 
T.)ilities and certainties are — in such decisions and posi- 
tive declarations of the self-evident consciousness — left 
entirely out of the mind. For example, because Mount 
Everest, of the Himalaya range, is twenty-nine thousand 
feet high, it is not possible for every other mountain in 
the world to report an equal elevation. JSTor is it pos- 
sible for mountams to exist without valleys between 
them, or that seas and oceans can exist without depres- 
sions in the earth's surface lowe?' than the arable and 
populated lands. It is not possible for two halves to 
be less or more than the whole. It is not possible that 
twice five should be either nine or eleven. 

And so men reason about some things and events 
that are intrinsically and salf evidently imjjossible^ and 
concerning other things and events that are intrinsically 
and self-evidently fossible^ while probabilities and cer- 
tainties are infinitely more remote from the admissions 
of the logical intellect. 



THE ZONE IS POSSIBLE. 23 



CHAPTEE y. 

THE ZONE IS POSSIBLE EST THE YEEY NATURE OF THINGS. 

Looking into tlie skv, and carefully examining the 
form of the planets in the stellar sphere, yon remark, 
first of all, that the sliaije of snn and moon and stars is 
round. Therefore, the heavenly bodies are properly 
called '' globes," while the word ^'planet" signifies to 
stray, to wander, or '' the traveler." 

The Chaldeans, as well as other Oriental nations, 
were profound students of the stars. They observed, 
naturally enough, just as you do, unaided by telescopes, 
and without using astro-mathematics, the existence of 
bright spherical bodies, which, because they have never 
been known to alter their grand and imposing con- 
figurations and relative positions, are called '• fixed 
stars." These stars, according to the ancients, were 
unalterably fixed in the firmament, or firm-built vault, 
which, they thought, revolved upon its axis, an im- 
measurable hollow sphere rolling diuimally around the 
earth, which was by them supposed to be an immovable 
flat and boundless stretch of land and water. 

The sphere of the fixed stars — each the throne of some 
unintellio'ible and lawless deitv or demon — bv revolving: 
around the motionless earth, produced the effects of rising 
and settina: amono; all the heavenlv bodies. It is not 
strange that the sun was by the ancients supposed to be 
the effrilofent seat of the master-o;od, whose almiolitv fiat 



24 



A STELLAR KEY. 



THE GEEAT CENTRxlL SUN. 




SUN OF THE INTERIOR UNIVERSE. 



The great original, ever-existing, omniscient, omnipotent, and omni- 
present productive power — the Soul of all existences — is throned in a 
central sphere, the circumference of which is the boundless universe, 
and around which solar, sidereal, and stellar systems revolve, in silent, 
majestic sublimity and harmony! This power is what mankind call 
Deity, whose attributes are love and wisdom, corresponding with the 
principles of male and female, positive and negative, sustaining and^ 
creative. 



THE ZONE IS POSSIBLE. 25 

caused all tlie marvelous moyements among the heav- 
enly bodies, unfolded the spangling panorama of the 
skies, emitted thunder and lightning, wheeled the blazing 
comet, sent meteoric or shooting stars, and filled the soli- 
tudes of immensity with fearful catastrophes ; neither is 
it strange that the human race, in its infancy, should 
have, out of appearance of the heavenly bodies, slowly 
elaborated a mythological theology, an astrological sys- 
tem of identifying the birth, life, fortunes, and misfor- 
tunes of individuals with the wills and good or evil 
conjunctions of conflicting divinities, supposed to inhabit 
the different stars in the revolving sphere. 

The progression of astronomical science has demon- 
strated many truths, and exposed many errors, accumu- 
lated and held sacred by the ancients. The roundness 
of the solar bodies has been settled by science. But 
the rotating spheres or circles of fixed stars, and the 
imposing illusion that the heavens are in the shape of a 
vault, have been perfectly removed by the hand of 
astronomical discovery. The Ptolemaic system, which 
admitted the notion of an indefinite number of starry 
rings or rotating circles, has not been wholly set aside, 
except in so far as the complete celestial mechanism is 
concerned ; for do we not read in modern astronomy 
of the paths of the comets, of the orbits of the planets, 
and of the tracli: of the sun, and all the stellar family 
from west to east, toward some more interior center or 
system in the solemn depths of infinitudes ? Ptolemy and 
Hipparchus of Alexandria, during the reigns of Adrian 
and Antonine at Pome, made astronomy a considerable 
degree more scientific and reliable ; although the group- 
ings and calculations of the planets were based upon the 

2 



26 A STELLAR KEY. 

cumbersome machmerj of diversal circles, in which the 
sun, moon, and stars were supposed to be fixed, like so 
many bright bodies fastened firmly to a multitude of nar- 
row wheels of immense diameter. This supposition, how- 
ever, was accepted and urged more by those less talented 
men who succeeded Ptolemy, and who, without leai^n- 
ing, advocated and degraded his more perfect system. 

What you are now asked to observe, is, first, the 
spherical form or roundness of the heavenly bodies; 
and, second, the circular orbit, or icheel-like path, in 
which they all uniformly revolve. The appearance of 
the sun to the natural eye is that of an immense globe 
of fire ! It is by astronomers said to contain more than 
seven hundred times as much matter as all the planets 
in our system ; some, by careful computation, declare 
that the sun is one million and four hundred thousand 
times greater in magnitude than the earth. And yet this 
earth is so very large, so vast in extent, that ethnologists 
and antiquarians are still searching for races and relics 
in regions not explored by civilized man. 

The sun is round, remember, and that it is rolling in 
a vast circular path through the dizzy abysses of sjDace ; 
so also do all the planets move and roll in the same direc- 
tion, from west to east, around the all-controlling sun ; 
and, what is still more remarkable, in all this sublime 
scene of starry harmony and supernal splendor, is, that 
all the planets perform their diurnal and annual revolu- 
tions on nearly the same plane. 

Whilst the essential characteristics of all planetary 
motions, like the form and shape of the planets them- 
selves, are circularity and roundness, it should be borne 
in mind that the cometary and meteoric bodies, which 



THE ZONE IS POSSIBLE. 



27 



THE SUN OF OUR SYSTEM. 



^^v^yf, ''"i"f'''''!'"';"'i;|f% 





% 



The radiant atmosphere of our Sun pervades the whole family of 
stars, moons, asteroids, comets, meteoric belts, and, like a fountain, 
feeds all the streams of cosmical matter belonging to our solar system. 
Science speculatively teaches that the body of the suu was once as 
large as the orbit of the outermost planet. 



28 A STELLAS KEY. 

are nothing but the bodies of cosraical space, do not 
strictly obey the established order and dignity of their 
elders and progenitors. These youngsters in the family 
of stars wander up and down, here and there, in and 
out, now up-stairs and now below in the basement of the 
temple — apparently acknowledging no allegiance to any 
of the unchangeable ways of the steady-going citizens 
of the skies — bnt run wild in all quarters of the heavens ; 
moving in parabolas, in eccentrically extended ellipses ; 
sometimes darting along in the direction of the sun and 
planets ; and at other times twisting in their orbits with 
a retrograde motion, but generally at right angles with 
the plane of the earth's orbit, and never out of harmony 
with the whole. It is, undoubtedly, a sufficient apology 
for the conduct of these baby-bodies of space, these 
free-going offspring of suns and planets, to remember 
that they are yet young. They conduct themselves 
naturally, beautifully, and consistently, when their 
juvenility is duly considered. 

Some venerable and illustrious stars, like comets and 
the smaller bodies, are irregular in their motions ; yet 
all in perfect harmony with the stellar '' music of the 
spheres." These irregular motions are often backward, 
forming a sort of epicycloidal curve, or in the line of the 
star's orbit. But no one star or comet turns or twists 

SO frequently as the cut represents, which only illus- 
trates the loops that occur ; but these loopings and 
slight retrograde motions are merely hreatJdng spells in 
the lungs of the great system. 



THE ZONE IS POSSIBLE. 29 

But it is in the heart and sphere of the sun, in the 
life of the fixed stars, and in the interior constitution 
of the whole stupendous stellar universe, that we are to 
look for the inner causes and perfect principles of all 
planetary organizations. 

^WTiat are those causes and principles ? What is that 
fundamental law which is naanifested so plainly in the 
shape and revolution of these heavenly bodies ? Sup- 
pose that the sun, which contains more than seven hun- 
dred times as much matter as all the planets put 
together, should be rolled out into a broad band, lite 
a wide ribbon drawn from the spool, what do you 
imagine would be the natural tendency of the matter ? 
The fii'st tendency would be to obey its centripetal 
motion, its own self-chemical attractions, and return 
instantly to its original globular form and condition ; 
whilst the second tendency would be, to flow out like 
an interminable river through infinitude, in obedience 
to its centrifugal motion, and in accordance with the 
circular revolution it has made, together with all the 
planets, for an eternity of ages. 

The sun's matter, thus di^awn out into an unbroken 
elastic luminous fluid, of the consistence of molten lead 
or iron, would form a zone of resplendent and vivifying 
beautv surroundino^ the whole heavens, totallv invisible 
to the unaided eye, and almost too attenuated for detec- 
tion by the most powerful telescope, and yet in that 
rotating solar belt there would be one million and four 
hundred thousand times more matter than is contained 
in the earth's constitution ! 

If this river of inter-cohesive sun-matter should in 
time be reduced in temperature, by passing through the 



30 A STELLAE KEY. 

resisting interstellar atmospherej one of two events would 
transpire ; eitlier the surface of the belt would become 
solid like the earth's surface, or the power of cohesion 
would be lost, and the zone broken into countless sepa- 
rate masses of nebulous matter, forming a boundless 
field of luminous meteors, or conaetoids, and filling the 
whole solar system with material for periodical storms 
of chaotic cosmical vapors — ^falling within the earth's 
atmosphere and the intervals between the planets like 
a rain of fire-mist and of burning stars. Scientifically 
speaking, the former event is not supposable, because 
the solar matter is too gross, and drops too low in the 
scale of gravitation, to maintain a continuous stratified 
surface ; and hence, following the volcanic law, the dis- 
ruption and formation of sporadic masses, meteorites, 
and cometary bodies in space, would be the legitimate 
and scientific event. 

But now — as to ih.Q possibility ! It is not going be- 
yond the sphere of facts, obtained by telescopic obser- 
vation, to suppose the organization of a zone in the 
heavens. We have seen the working of the principle 
of globe-building, and that all planetary bodies, either 
spheroidal or perfectly round, move through the 
heavens in circular paths. There can be no violation 
of this law in higher conditions and finer organizations 
of matter. Hence, is it not possible in the nature of 
things that a Zone of stratified substance, luminous and 
inter-cohesive and circular, may exist ? If you can see 
the Zone, as a possihility in the organization of the 
universe, then you are prepared to take another step in 
this investigation. 



VIEWED AS A PROBABILITY. 31 



CHAPTEK VI. 

THE SPIEITUAL ZOXE TIEWED AS A PEOBABrLITY. 

A^Y THixa that is proboMe comes nearer to Lnman 
credence. A possibility is exceedingly remote and 
obscure ; whilst a probability is at hand — something 
within the mind's reach. The question of the proba- 
bility of a Summer Land Zone in the heavens can be 
considered with more logical success, I think, after we 
have enlarged our thoughts and enriched our concep- 
tions, by contemplating the wondrous symmetry and 
arraying magnitude of our solar system. 

Prof. Nichol, of the University of Glasgow, borrowed 
from Sir John Herschel, a thought-enlarging illustra- 
tion to this effect : Conceive the sun represented by a 
globe two feet in diameter ; at eighty-two feet distance 
put down a grain of mustard-seed, and you have the 
size and place of the planet Mercury, that bright 
silvery point which is generally enveloped in the solar 
rays ; at the distance of one hundred and forty-two feet 
lay down ^.pea^ and it will be the similitude of Yeii^s, 
om' dazzling evening and morning star. Two hundred 
and fifteen feet fi^om the central globe, place another 
jpea^ only imperceptibly larger — ^that is Man's world — 
(once the center of the Universe !)— the theater of our 
terrestrial destinies — the birthplace of most of our 
thoughts ! Mars is smaller still — a good piri^s head 
being his proper representative, at the distance of three 



THE ISLAND UNIVERSE. 



.A 



,^^^^-_ 



.,.,i\§;k. 



■^ilJk 



\':¥^ 





''^\^M' 



■iu; 



^^*j^ 



OUTLINE VIEW OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM. 



The expression ''Island Universe" was suggested by 
the immense distance of the fixed stars from our Sun and 
Planets ; giving the impression that our Solar System 
occupies an isolated position in the boundless ocean of 
space. See a diagram on another page. 



TIETTED AS A PROBAEILITY. 33 

liundi^ed and twenty-seven feet : the small planets seem 
as the least possible grains of sanely abont five hundred 
feet from the snn ; JrpiTER as a middle-sized orange^ 
distant abont a quarter of a mile ; Satuex with, his ring 
a lesser orange^ at the remoteness of two-fifths of amile ; 
and the tkr Ueaxus dwindles into a cherry^ moving in 
a circle three-quarters of a mile in radius. Such is the 
system of which our puny earth was once accounted the 
chief constituent, — a system whose real or absolute 
dimensions are stupendous, as may be gathered fi'om the 
size of the Sux himself — the glorious globe around 
wliich these orbs obediently circle ; which has a diameter 
nearly four times larger than the immense interval 
which separates the Moox from the Eaeth. Compare 
this mighty diameter, or the space of nine hundred 
thousand miles, with the assumed diameter of two feet ; 
and the proportion will tell by how many times the 
supposititious orbit of Uranus should be enlarged ! The 
dimensions of the system surpass all efibrt to conceive 
or embody them ; and yet a wider knowledge of the 
Universe shows that they belong only to our first or 
smallest order of ln'fixities. 

Prof. Kirkwood, of the TTasliington and Jefi*er5on 
College, speaking of our solar system, says : '^]S^EPTr^'E 
is the most remote known member of the system ; its 
distance being nearly three thousand millions of miles. 
It is somewhat larger than Uranus ; has certainly one 
satellite, and probably several more. Its period is 
about one hundred and sixty-five years. A cannon- 
ball flying at the rate of five hundred miles per hour 
would not reach the orbit of Xeptune from the sun in 
less than six hundi^ed and eightv vears. It is proper to 

2* 



34 A STELLAR KEY. 

remark, however, that all representations of the solar 
system by maps and planetariums must give an exceed- 
ingly erroneous view either of the magnitudes or dis- 
tances of its various members. If the earth, for instance, 
be denoted by a ball half an inch in diameter, the 
diameter of the sun, according to the same scale (six- 
teen thousand miles to the inch), mil be between four 
and five feet ; that of the earth's orbit, about one thou- 
sand feet; while that of Xeptune's orbit will be nearly 
six miles. To give an accurate representation of the 
solar system at a single view is therefore plainly imprac- 
ticable." 

The vast family of planets rotate harmoniously on 
their own axes, each in the performance of its own indi- 
vidual functions and duties, and they also all revolve 
as harmoniously around the sun, thus causing the 
regular succession of days and nights on each planet, 
and the regular coming and going of the four beautiful 
and indispensable seasons. But how " various are the 
absolute durations of these important periods in the 
dififerent bodies !" The most brilliant imagination can 
scarcely embrace the wonderful difi*erences here sug- 
gested. " How, for instance," asks an astronomer, 
^' can that contrast be pictured, which subsists between 
the two extreme bodies of our system, Uranus and 
Mercury — the one hurrying through its restless cycle 
of seasons in three months, and the other spending on 
the same relative change eighty-four terrestrial years ? 
A tree in Mercury — if such there be — would gather 
around its pith or axis three hundred and thirty-six of 
those well-known circular layers, in a time during 
which the sluggish vegetation of Uranus would only 



VIEWEI> AS A PEOB ABILITY. 35 

have deposited one; and a full and burning lifetime, 
made up of rapid sparkling joys and acute sorrows, 
would, in so close neighborhood of the Sun, be com- 
l^ressed within a space hardly adequate on earth to lead 
youth to its meridian — while at that outer confine a 
slow pulse and drow^sy blood might sustain for centuries 
a slumbering and emotionless existence ! The question 
is further complicated if we refer to the rapid succes- 
sion of day and night in the remote planets ; perhaps 
modifying, by the activity it excites, the comparative 
torpidity due to the length of the year. "We can form 
no notion of the physiological consequences due to a 
recurrence of day and night within the brief period of 
nine or ten hours." 

In another place the same author says : " We know 
that long progress is essential to our planet's destiny ; 
and surely it is not alone amid the planetary scheme — 
not alone does it undergo the apparently necessary fate 
of all beings subject to the empire of time and space. 
Granting that every planet has a life of its own — an 
interior and self-comprehended principle, by which it is 
led through mighty developments, the question recurs, 
whether there is unity or connection among these prin- 
ciples — whether the orbs proceed and pass into new 
forms, according to similar or related laws — whether, 
in short, the system has one central goverDing prin- 
ciple, a common life running through the whole, 
explaining its contrarieties, warming and animating 
them all, as man's Ufe circulates with his blood ? To 
a question so bold, we cannot here give an answer. 
Other objects must first be surveyed, especially the seat 
of the power, which, if it exists, is necessarily the Suisr. 



88 A STELLAE KEY. 

" But is Life in all these planets ? Throngh all possi- 
ble schemes, throngli all conditions of a globe's evolving 
organization, is what we call Life an inseparable oi 
essential concomitant ? Life, visible or invisible— ^. e,^ 
the sentient and intelligent principle — naj, even, jjro- 
gressive life, a growing and evolving Reason — is doubt- 
less an essential element of the universe ; perhaps the 
very highest development of any imaginable energy ; 
such Life may be diffused without limit, may assume 
forms and be connected with bodies or centers, of which 
man has obtained hitherto only the most confined idea ; 
but to the fulfilling and realizing of this aim, is it 
necessary that small, sentient, self-contained organisms 
— worshiping, with few dissents, their peculiar idols 
of the tribe, den, forum and theater — shall move over 
the surface of each planet ? Beautiful the carpeting 
which covers vast portions of the earth, a carpeting on 
which sorrow often treads, but chiefly joy — now bound- 
ing in youth, now placid in manhood, and meditative in 
age — but that is not universal ! I reflect on history — 
on the fact that such life seems among the incidents, 
the befalling things of our globe's mysterious destiny ; 
and my mind recurs to solitudes — to its still existing 
deserts, which even the patient camel does not enter 
without a shudder ; to valleys with giant sides, where 
the unsightly Cretin, and the frequent glare of idiocy, 
speak of formations inhospitable to man. Sovereign 
Blanc ! ITeither is thy bare forehead, which not even 
a lichen has ever stained, an outcast from the great 
scheme of things — uncomprehended, unwarmed by the 
world's indwelling Soul!" 



EVIDENCES OF ZONE-FOKMATIOKS. 37 



CHAPTEK VII. 

EYrDEJS-CES OF ZOKE-FOEMATIOXS m THE HEAVENS. 

In this department of the subject we are impression- 
ally admonished to take the testimony of astronomers, 
and of known scientists in other regions of inquiry ; so 
that the physical or sensuous side of our ^' spiritual " 
question may be amply represented, and all the external 
evidences adduced, for the gratification and benefit of 
inductive reason ers in general. In future chapters the 
deductive or more spiritual evidences and philosophical 
arguments will appear ; so that, from an innumerable 
multitude of facts suggested and principles explained, 
the certamty of the celestial Zone may be established ; 
or, at least, be deemed by the truly scientific a question 
worthy of the strictest and most patient investigation. 
The illustrious Shelley, in one of his comprehensive 
celestial visions, saw beyond the sweep of Lord Eosse's 
immense telescope : 

'* Earth's distant orb appears 
The smallest orb that twinkles in the heavens ; 
Whilst round the chariot's way 
Innumerable systems rolled, 
And countless spheres diffus^ 
An ever- varying glory." 

The probability of the Summer Land Zone, as a 
material reality in the Structure and sublime Economy 



S3 A STELLAIi KEY, 

of the heavens, will dawn first upon that mind which 
rationally understands the causative principles lo'dldn 
the belt-building manifestations of cosmical matter. 
On this ring-forming tendency of all atoms in space, 
let us take the testimony of astronomers. 

And first let us hear from an astronomical inves- 
tigator, whose mathematical paper on the Nebular 
Hypotheses, appeared in the " American Journal of 
Science and Arts " (Yol. XXXVIII. Nov., 186i), and 
which has been pronounced as adding something 
''new" by several eminent astronomers. The entire 
treatise should be consecutively read, in justice to the 
argument and its author, but for the present purpose a 
few extracts will sufiice. 

The Original Condition of Matter, — Geology has 
revealed the fact that it took immense ages of time to 
form the earth, and fit it for the liabitation of man. 
The same science also points somewhat definitely to a 
time when the earth was in a highly heated condi- 
tion. Mathematical science, applied to the problem of 
the earth's conformation, teaches us that the earth has 
that form — the asperities of its surface not considered 
— which it ought to have if it were in a fiuid state 
when it assumed its present form. These facts — to 
which we mio-ht add the condition of Saturn's rino's — 
seem to teach that the earth, and in short the whole 
Solar System^ were once in an aeriform state. An 
additional argument in favor of this view, is derived 
from the physical constitution of Comets, 

Tlte Ojyerations of Seat. — Philosophers, in their 
investigations, have arrived at this general conclusion 
re523ecting the operation of heat, namely, that mechan- 



EYIDEKCES OF ZONE-FOKMATIOI^-S. 39 

ical action develops it, and the greater the action the 
greater the heat ; and that as soon as heat becomes 
sensible, it tends to change the condition of bodies. 
This, then, reduces the cause of the primitive gaseous 
state of the stellar and planetary worlds to mechanical 
action. As the mechanical action becomes less and less? 
the operations of heat become less and less potent. 

Motions of different Bodies. — Around the different 
centers, matter would accumulate and condense, and 
these nuclei, so formed, would revolve around their 
common center of gravity. As soon as a rotary motion 
had commenced, centrifugal forces would begin to act ; 
and as the process of cooling continued, the attraction 
of gravitation would have a greater control (for the 
tendency of heat is to expand all bodies, and thus to 
operate against the attraction of cohesion, and also of 
gravitation in the case which we are considering), and 
thus the mass would be condensed, and the rotatory 
motion thereby increased. Each nucleus would itself 
be in a condition verj^ similar to that which at first 
existed in the original great fluid mass. 

Origin of the Spherical Zone, — A fluid mass which 
does not rotate on an axis must ultimately become 
spherical in form, whatever be the lavf of attraction. 
But if it have a rotatory motion, it can never become 
a sphere, although it may approximate to one in form. 
A fluid body which rotates on an axis will be swelled 
out at the equator ; that is, the particles of matter will 
be thrown from the axis of rotation, and there will 
consequently be a depression about the poles. 

In the case of a homogeneous spheroid there are, 
with a slow rotation, two forms of equilibrium, one of 



40 A STELLAR KEY. 

which is an oblate spheroid of small ellipticity, and the 
other is an oblate spheroid of great ellipticity. 

Plane of the Zone-Formations. — The primitive solar 
spheroid could have only approximated to a symmetrical 
form, and to a symmetrical disposition of its materials, 
especially in the enter parts. If it were so constituted, 
it is difficult to see how it could separate into rings of 
much width ; but the materials being somewhat hetero- 
geneously distributed, a ring of considerable width 
might be thrown off, or rather abandoned. 

The invariahle jplane of the solar system must be the 
invariable plane of the primitive solar spheroid, and 
that must have coincided approximately with the plane 
of the equator. The first planetary ring abandoned 
would have an inclination to the plane of the equator 
nearly the same as that of the principal plane ; and 
thus the outermost planet of the solar system should 
move in an orbit whose inclination is nearly the same 
as that of the principal plane of the solar system. By 
making as exact a determination as possible, M. Les- 
piault has found the inclination of the invariable jDlane 
to be 1° 41\ The inclination of the orbit of Neptune is 
1° 4A" 59^^, the correspondence of these two numbers is 
rather remarkable. 

The Existence and Location of Zones, — Prof. Peirce, 
of Harvard University, in his investigation of the pro- 
blem of the stability of the motions of Saturn's rings, 
arrived at the remarkable conclusion that the dynami- 
cal equilibrium of the rings is preserved by the sustain- 
ing effect of satellites in the very act of perturbation. 
He then makes 'the remark, that the only place in the 
Solar System, among the primary planets, where we 



EVIDENCES OF ZONE-FOEMATIOXS. 41 

could, from the above conclusions, expect a permanent 
ring, is just within the powerful masses of Jupiter and 
Saturn. 

A Zone Existing for InnumerlMe Ages. — Basing 
our reasoning on the preceding results, we are led to 
the conclusion that under certain conditions — such as 
probably exist within the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn 
in the Solar System — the abandoned fluid ring may 
preserve its form for immense ages^ and thns have time 
to cool down somewhat and approximate to the condi- 
tion of an incompressible fluid. . . . Under certain 
conditions — such as Prof. Peirce has found to exist in 
the System of Saturn — a ring, or rings, might remain 
entire. 

Revolutions of the Cosmical Etlier, — If there exists 
a cosmical ether (as is at present generally admitted), in 
order that it may remain spread throughout universal 
space, it is only necessary for it to possess an elasticity 
so great that the action of luminous bodies is sufficient to 
produce a mechanical action in it that will enable it to 
maintain its temperature and fluid condition under all 
circumstances. This cosmical ether being material in 
its nature, it would necessarily partake of the motion 
of those bodies vrith which it remains in contact for 
immense ages of time. In the Solar System, the 
motion of the ether around the sun would be in the 
general direction of all the planets. 

Harmony and Corresj>ondence tJiroughout the Uni- 
verse, — ]\Ir. Nasmyth, in the " Annual of Scientific 
Discovery," for 1857, says: Every well-trained philo- 
sophical judgment is accustomed to observe illustrations 
of the most sublime phenomena of creation in the most 



42 A STELLAR KEY. 

minute and familiar operations of tlie Creator's laws, 
one of the most characteristic features of which consists 
in the absolute and wonderful integrity maintained in 
their action, whatsoever be the range as to magnitude or 
distance of the objects on which they operate. For 
instance, the minute particles of dew which whiten the 
grass-blade in early morn, are, in all probability, 
molded into spheres by the identical law which gives 
to the mighty sun its globular form. It is remarkable 
of physical laws, that we see them operating on every 
kind of scale as to magnitude, with the same regularity 
and perseverance. . . Two eddies in a stream fall 
into a mutual revolution at the distance of a couple of 
inches, through the same cause that makes a pair of 
suns link in mutual revolution at the distance of mil- 
lions of miles. There is, we might say, a sublime sim- 
plicity in this indifierence of the grand regulations to 
the vastness or the minuteness of the field of their 
operations. We thus may learn, from the minuter 
operations of nature, of those grand revolutions which 
we have reason to conclude have taken place in past 
ages of duration. 

Saturii^s Belts an Ulustration, — The rings of Saturn 
offer a living example of the primitive secondary rings. 
They open to us, in a measure, the nature and consti- 
tution of the primitive rings, both the primary and 
secondar}^.*^ 

Prof. Kirkwood, in his Treatise on Meteoric Astron- 
omy, says that the most probable opinion, based on the 

* These extracts from Prof. Trowbridge indicate the information and 
speculations extant among scientific men on the formation and existence 
of zones, or rings of cosmical matter. 



EYTDENCES OF ZOXE-FOEMITIOXS. 43 

researches of astronomers, is, that Saturn's rings "con- 
sist of streams or clouds of meteoric asteroids. The 
zodiacal light, and the zone of small planets between 
Mars and Jupiter, appear to constitute analogous 
2?rima7'y rings. In the latter, however, a large propor- 
tion of the primitive matter seems to have collected in 
distinct, segregated masses." 

The same author, speaking of the asteroidal ring- 
between Mars and Jupiter (which no man's unaided 
physical eyes can see), says : '* The mean distances of 
the minor planets between Mars and Jupiter vary from 
2.20 to 3.49. The breadth of the zone is therefore 
20,000,000 miles greater than the distance of the earth 
from the sun y' greater even than the entire interval 
between the orbits of Mercury and Mars. Moreover, 
the pe7'{heUo7i distance of some members of the group 
exceeds the aphelion distance of others by a quantity 
equal to the whole interval between the orbits of Mars 
and the earth." 

Althouoch the reader mav never have investio:ated 
either of the points developed by the astronomers ; yet 
now, since they testify to the existence of immense 
zones of matter, and that these zones not only continue 
imbroken for countless ages, but revolve like the planets, 
each on its own gravitational center or mathematical 
axis, are you not prepared to admit both the possibility 
and the jyrohability of a more interior reality f This 
scientific external testimony naturally lays a foundation 
in tlie logical judgment for confidence in the existence 
of an inner universe of far exceeding beauty and glory. 
Although at present neither intellectually nor teles- 
copically seen, but being not less within the domain of 



44 A STELLAR KEY. 

the rational faculties, yet the honest mind, it seems to 
me, cannot but give due weight to facts and principles 
of a more interior nature, of which these planetary 
formations and revolutions are merely the physical 
manifestations. 



THE SCIENTIFIO CEETAINTT. 45 



CHAPTEE YIIL 

THE SCIEKTIFIC CEETAIXTY OF THE SPIEITrAL ZO:^s"E. 

It has been asserted that Spiritualists, as a class, do 
not read carefully and investigate thoroughly ; that 
they are superficial, shallow-minded, and credulous, 
believing great things upon little evidence, &c. ; but it 
yet remains to be determined vAo are the real embodi- 
ments of superficiality, shallowness, and feeble-minded 
credulity. 

In considering the certainty of the Summer Land, as 
a stratified and inhabitable Zone in the bosom of the 
Stellar Universe, it becomes necessary to change the 
stand-point of the positive philosopher. He has stood 
without the temple, contemplating the phenomenal 
display of dynamic forces and spiritual agencies, which 
become visible to the eyes of reason when the philoso- 
pher explores the inner departments of the Divine 
Administration. In these illustrious days of enlarged 
and independent research, when even the gre?vt I^ev*^- 
tonian doctrine of gravitation or central attraction has 
been well-nigh eclipsed by the discovery of opposite 
powers, or magnetic and electrical polarities within and 
throughout all matter, — it becomes tlie true philosopher 
to turn from the superficial and phenomenal realm of dis- 
play, to turn from visible facts to the examination of the 
causes and principles behind mem, and then to ponder 
well the far-reaching and fruitful lessons they^ legiti- 



46 A STELLAR KEY. 

mately impart. Truly has it been remarked that, 
isolated, every thing is a mystery. All that we know 
depends on the connection of things one with another ; 
and it is only by contemplating creation as a whole tliat 
we can attain true conceptions of its parts. This is 
indeed the highest exercise of the intellect, and that 
which more than aught else tends to develop and 
expand it. Even the dreamy eyes of Tennyson recog- 
nized the truth, tliat 

'* Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
And the thoughts of men are widen'cl with the process of the sun." 

The mental condition of brightness, of calmness, of 
impartiality, which is alone adapted to the pursuit and 
discovery of truth, was forcibly put by Prof. Wilkin- 
son, of London, Eng., in the introduction to one of his 
admirable books : — 

" Incredulity of a fact, I take it, is that widespread 
weakness of the human mind, which is observed in 
men who have perfected their opinions, and have no 
room for learning any thing more. A new fact to them 
is just one above the number that is convenient or 
necessary for them, and had they the power of creating, 
or of preventing creation, the inconvenient fact should 
not have existed. Indeed, if admitted into their com- 
pleted system, ' the little stranger ' would destroy it 
altogether, by acting as a chemical solvent of the 
fabric ! 

" But this is not the mode of the searcher after truth ; 
and in determining the important question which it is 
intended to sul>mit for consideration, I would rather 
forget much that I have been taught, or find it all 



THE SCIENTIFIC CEHTAINTY. 47 

unsound, than I would reject one single circumstance 
which I know and recognize as a truth. In all the ques- 
tions that can by possibility be mooted, whether philo- 
sophical or otherwise, that theory is alone admissible 
which will explain all the attendant phenomena and 
observed facts, and which is, moreover, consistent with 
the nature of man, and the world of matter and of 
mind with whicb he is connected. 

''How true it is-, that 'there are more things in 
heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosojyJiy^^ 
and yet how seldom is this great truth remembered at 
the right time ! Although natural facts, being based, 
as they are, upon, and the products of Divine laws, 
never change, how long it is before they are recognized 
and adapted into our little self-formed systems ; and 
with what throes and agonies have their acknowledg- 
ments invariably been attended ! How mucb easier to 
say, ' Impossible !' and to* reject the fact, than to have 
to reconstruct a new theory which shall embrace it, and 
in which it can find its home ! Disbelieve, therefore, 
after inquiry, if you see cause, but do not begin with 
disbelief 

What we now ask is, that you be as truly philo- 
sophical as you have been sensuously scientific, and 
thus honestly examine interior causes, and weigh 
dynamic principles, just as you have observed effects, 
and reasoned from one set of appearances to another set 
of appearances. The profoundly philosophic Sweden- 
borg, whose inductive reasonings shine 'effulgently 
even through the mazes of his multitudinous spiritual 
experiences, in his Arcana Celestia^ 6084, says : " It 
is a fallacy of sense merely natural, that there are 



43 A STELLAR KEY. 

simple substances, wliicli are monads and atoms, for 
whatever is Vvdtliin the external sensual, this the natm^al 
man believes, that it is such a thing or nothing. It is a 
fallacy of sense merely natural, that all things are of 
nature and from nature, and that indeed in purer or 
interior nature there is something which is not appre- 
hended ; but if it be said, that within or above nature 
there is the spiritual and celestial, this is rejected, and it 
is believed that unless it be natural, it is nothing. It is 
a fa^llacy of sense, that the body alone lives, and that its 
life perishes when it dies ; the sensual does not at all 
apprehend that the internal man is in single things of 
the external, and that the internal man is within nature 
in the spiritual world : hence neither does he believe, 
because he does not apprehend, that he shall live after 
death, unless he be again clothed with a body. Hence 
there is a fallacy of sense, that man can no more live 
after death than the beasts, by reason that these also 
have a life in many respects similar to the life of man, 
only that man is a more perfect animal. The sensual 
does not apprehend, that is, the man who thinks and 
concludes from the sensual, that man is above the 
beasts and has a superior life in this, because he can 
think, not only concerning the causes of things, but 
also concerning the Divine, and by faith and love be 
conjoined with the Divine, and also receive influx 
thence, and appropriate it to himself, so that in man, 
because there is given a reciprocal, there is given recep- 
tion, which is nowise the case with the beasts. It is a 
fallacy thencCj that the living principle itself with man, 
which is called the soul, is only something ethereal, or 
flamy, which is dissipated when man dies ; and that it 



THE SCIEXTIFIC CERTArNTY. 49 

resides either in the heart, or in the brain, or in some 
part thereof, and that hence it rules the body as a 
machine ; that the internal man is in single things of 
the external, that the eye does not see from itself but 
from that internal man, nor the ear hear from itself but 
fi'om that, the sensual man does not apprehend." 

3 



50 A STELLAE KEY 



CHAPTER IX. 

A VIEW OF THE WORKI^^G FORCES OF THE CXIVERSE. 

AsTRONo:siT began with solid Crvstalline Spheres ; 
then the theory of Epicycles was adopted ; after which 
Descartes introduced the Vortices ; then the discovery 
of Gravitation arrived through Xewton ; and now, with- 
in all and above all, the world is enriched with Polari- 
zation, by which chemical, electrical, magnetic, and 
even mechanical forces, are wedded by beautiful re- 
ciprocations and most intimate relationships ; and thus 
the whole subject of the working forces of the universe 
becomes more than ever attractive and fruitful. 

There are two most important discoveries in science : 
First, the universal persistency and indestructibility of 
Force; and second, the interpolarity and universal 
convertibility of Force. The first, in modern scientific 
phraseology, is termed " the conservation of force," and 
the last " the correlation of force " — teaching the divine 
lesson that all forces, as well as all forms in the Universe, 
are immortal sisters and brothers. 

From these splendid discoveries, the illustrations of 
which need not be given here, we obtain the stellar key 
to the Summer Land. I'orce is as substantial, as real, 
as material, as matter itself; nay, more, the materialism 
of matter melts away and utterly disappears in the 
spiritualism of intelligent principles ! Dr. Joule, of 
England, has demonstrated the mechanical equivalence 



FORCES OF THE UXITERSE. 51 

of heat, which, hitherto in science, has been considered 
material, but is now seen to be only another form of 
force. Nature's Divine Eevelations, published long 
before these discoveries, teach the materiality of 
'^Fire," "Heat," ''Light," ''Electricity," "Magnet- 
ism," "Motion," "Life," "Sensation," "Intelligence," 
and, highest of all, " Spirit." And for teaching such 
"materialism," the whole religions and literary world 
was provoked to opposition and ridicule. But, accord- 
ing to progressive law, Prof. Faraday demonstrates the 
material immateriality, so to speak, of electricity, and 
shows the intimate relationships and equivalence of 
electrical and chemical forces ; and very soon after it 
was found by Dr. Joule that " a pound weight falling 
through 772 feet, or 772 pounds falling through 1 foot, 
and then arrested, produce sufficient heat to raise one 
pound of water 1 degree of Fahrenheit." Thus a 
mechanical force is demonstrated as coming from what 
has been regarded as pure immateriality. And chemi- 
cal and magnetic experiments, equally unquestionable, 
have established the spirit uo-materiality of those ele- 
ments which have been so long termed " imponderables." 
The next step must be into the realm whence forces 
emanate ; into the very sacred presence of Litelligence, 
Will, Thoughts, Ideas, Spieit! And these, too, will 
have their equivalence and conversion into electrical 
force, into chemical force, into magnetic force, and into 
mechanical or lowest force; for spirit is si:rBSTA:NCE ; 
and every thing is rooted and grounded in Spirit ; and 
so those extreme idealists, who have sentimentally and 
dogmatically abolished from the Summer Land all 
materiality, will be convinced that " something" could 



52 



A STELLAR KEY. 



not have proceeded from " nothing ;" wliich discovery, 
doubtless, will greatly relieve them from maDy painful 
thoughts of possible annihilation. 

Viewing the outlying and interior universes, with 
these new discoveries for spectacles, do you not appre- 
hend a new scale of conservative and correlative forces ? 
How does the following scale look? Begin at the 
bottom, with No. 1, and rise progressively, as a tree 
grows from its roots u]>ward ; and tlien, having reached 
the topmost point of observation, let us pause and 
meditate : 



9. DEITY. 
8. IDEAS. 
7. PEINCIPLES. 
6. LAWS. 
5. ESSENCES. 
4. ETHERS. 
3. VAPORS. 
2. FLUIDS. 
1. SOLIDS. 

sible state of motion and energy. 
pole, and No. 1 the negcttive pole, 



The lowest point 
of departure, No. 1, 
which is the plane 
of the ''Solids," is 
the point where the 
highest substances 
and slowest motions 
are most demon- 
strated ; whilst the 
highest point attain- 
able, No. 7, is where 
the lowest substance 
is most exalted, and 
in the highest pos- 
No. 7 is the positive 
of a perfect universe. 



FORCES OF THE TJXITERSE. 



53 






If 



* * 



t The philosophy of science, as 
Imodernlj stated, is, practically, 
^ that ''matter, viewed separately 
^ from force, is nothing." In other 
words, heat, light, electricity, mag- 
netism, chemical effects, &c., are 
only different modes of motion or 
action of the same force. Different 
motions are said to be nothing 
but different expressions of force ; 
transferred, in degrees of greater 
or less intensity, from one point to 
another point in space. It is by 
one popular scientific authority 
urged that " electricity, mag- 
netism, and chemical affinity are 
correlates, and change readily into 
each other without loss of quantity 
of the original ^orce. . These 
forces," he says, "or rather this 
force, since all are convertible, is 
the source of the delusion we are 
under with respect to matter, 
when we say we see and feel it. 
For what do we see ? Light, which 
is force, photographs a minute in- 
verted image on the bottom of the 
eye — on tKe retina, which acting 
^ on the brain produces conscious- 
•| ness of an object. All that is 
J^ known to us is the mental concep- 
3 tion — the reality of which our 
ffl conception is composed, is Force. 



54 A STELLAR KEY. 

It is evident there is no matter here. But surely we 
feel matter if we do not see it ! The sense of Feeling 
is mere repulsion — resistance to motion. When we 
speak of matter as subtle, or as solid, liquid, or aeriform, 
we simply mean that it presents more or less resistance 
to motion. ' When the question arises,' says J. S. Mill, 
' whether something which affects our senses in a pecu- 
liar way, as for instance whether Heat or Light, or 
Electricity, is or is not matter, what seems always to 
be meant is, does it offer any, however trifling, resist- 
ance to motion ? If it were shown that it did, this 
would at once terminate all doubt.' 

" But when we speak of either matter or force we 
speak only of the external cause of our sensations and 
ideas, and these tell us nothing of the real nature or 
essence of either ; why not then continue to use the 
term matter,, as heretofore ? We answer, because the 
more general term force may include, and does really 
include, both ^lat has hitherto been called Matter and 
Spiiit also. We are told that ' Force viewed separately 
from matter is nothing.' I think it more correct to say 
that matter viewed separately from force is nothing, 
because we know that force passes into or changes into 
mind, as heat into light, and we thus include both sides 
of creation — Matter and Spirit. Force, in its different 
modes of action as Light, Heat, Electricity, Galvanism, 
Chemical Affinity, Attraction and Repulsion, is suffi- 
cient to produce half the phenomena around us. Life 
and Mind, w^hich are correlates of Force, or other modes 
of its action, are sufficient to produce the other half. 
There is but One simple, primordial, absolute Force, 
with varying relations and conditions. The modes of • 



FORCES OF THE UNIVEESE. 55 

Force or Effects now in existence are neither more nor 
less than such as have previously existed, changed only 
in form. They have not merely acted upon each other, 
according to the common supposition with respect to 
matter, but have chakoed mTO each other. This will 
be found to be a very important distinction. Each 
change is a new creation of something which in that 
form or mode has never existed before — a new life, and 
as it passes into another form or mode, a new death — 
' nothing repeats itself, because nothing can be placed 
again in the same condition : the past is irrevocable.' 
And may we not add, irrecoverable." 

But while these philosophers are on the broad road 
that leadeth to 2, forcible annihilation of '' Solids," they 
will discover, all of a sudden, in the straight and nar- 
row way, that the universe is essentially dual ; and that 
the manifestations of force are only different forms or 
modes of a persistent and indestructible materiality, or 
the varying changes of an eternal substance, which is 
negatively^ Matter, and, positively^ Mind — the two 
forms or conditions of the one unitary central Reality. 
The universal doubleness or duality of things is a 
demonstration of what is immutably true of the Cen- 
tral Whole. 

The conservation and correlation of Forces, as the 
results in philosophic science are now denominated, 
require the admission that No. 7 and N"o. 1 in the scale, 
together with all the numbers between^ are nothing but 
different forms or modes of a principle called " Force." 
Whereas, in accordance with our light on this subject, 
No. 7 comprehends and includes No. 1, as well as all 
the ascending numbers; but it is not possible that 



56 



A STELLAE KEY. 



either should become the other, except in degree, and 
through the unceasing processes of spiral progression. 



^^^^m^MMkj^^ 



■ft 



^av** 



GOD. 



^m 



Mother. 
Love 
and 

"Wisdom. 



Wisdom 

and 
Loye. 



GOD. 



Ideas. 



( Expressed in 
I pure Si>irit. 



I Manifested in 
I pure lleason. 



M 



WILL. 
^ IDEAS. "^ 

PRIXCIPLES. 
LAWS. 

ESSENCES. 

ETHEES. 

VAPOES. 

FLUIDS. 

SOLIDS. 



[NCIPLES. < 



[Declared in 
PhINCIPLES. •{ fi>rm of uni- 
versal Power. . 



Laws. 



Demonstrated 
the form of 



( Dem 
{ in tl 
( Fori 



-p q { Brought out in 

JliSSENCES. -j Magnetism. 

I Come in the 
Ethers. < shape of Elec- 

( tricitj. 



V Af utt&. -j mospheres. 



Fluids. 



j The universal 
[ expression is 
I Water. 



Manifested in 



SOLIDS. {"^^'^t 



Perhaps it would appear plainer if the scale were 
expressed as follows : — 



FOECES OF THE UXFTEESE. 



57 



CAUSES. 



SPIRIT— God: 
REASOX— IDEASJ 
POWER— Prixciples: 



The most perfect 
conception c:in- 
tains both Moth- 
er and Father. 

Both Lore and 
Wisdom. C'intains 
all impersonal 
principk-sof God. 

The unchangeable 
expressions^ of 
God's universal 
Ideas. 



EFFECTS. 



I 



FORCE— Laws ; 



:MAGXETIS:M— Essences : 



ELECTRICITY— Ethers ; 



The special meth- 
ods of action of 
Ideas and Princi- 
ples. 
( The vitalic ntter- 
) ances of Ideas, 
I Principles, and 
{ Laws. 

f The universal me- 
j dium for the 
J manifestation of 
; Ideas. Principles, 
Laws, and Essen- 
L ces. 



ATMOSPHERE— Vapors : 



ULTIMATES. 



WATER— Fluids ; 



EARTH— Solids; 



r The purifyinsr la- 
boratory throuorh 
which fluw the 
effects of Ideas, 
Principles, Laws, 
Essences, and 
Ethers. 

f The viaduct for 
the transmission 
of the slowing 
motions of everv 
substance and 
force in the uni- 
verse. 
The lowest condi- 
tion of Substance 
and the slowest 
utterance of 
Ideas. Principles, 
Laws. Essences, 
Ethers. Vapors, 
and riuids. 



L 



It may not be deemed inappropriate to present still 
another scale and statement. The subject may possibly 
be bronght yet closer to the common understanding. 

3* 



58 



A STELLAR KEY. 



We will give the genesis of the world-building descen- 
sion of the Divine Substance, thus : — 



9. GOD. 



8. Ideas. 



'7. Prmciples. 



3. Yapors. 



2. Fluids. 



4. Ethers. 



6. Laws. 



5. Essences. 



1. Solids. 



The plane of Solids is reached by the continuous 
degrees of descending action of the primordial positive 
Powers. Although these degrees appear dissimilar and 
discreted, or separated by impassable barriers of wholly 
dissimilar parts of the causative Energy ; yet the 
acknowledged sovereign law of convertibility or corre- 
lation of forces and substances, must convince the 
rational intelligence that '' discrete degrees," in the 
absolute sense, are impossible in a universe constructed 
upon an infinite number of inseparable afiinities. 

In the amazing magnitude of our subject, so opulent 
of variety and so fruitful in thought, the mind is con- 
stantly liable to lose the links of the argument. The 
va2:uenes3 of the hints about resolvino; all matter into 



FOECES OF THE UXIYEESE. 59 

force, is, of itself, sufficient to perplex and fatigue the 
non-scientific understanding. But calmness of brain 
will keep the thinking faculties in receptive condition. 

Of God, Spinoza says : " He is the Universal Being, 
of which all thino-s are the manifestations." Heo^el also 
defines God as the " Being," or, perhaps, in philosophic 
language, as the ''Central Causation." Huxley says 
that " every form is force become visible ; a form of 
rest is a balance of forces ; a form undergoing change is 
the predominance of one over others." In a more reve- 
rential temper Prof. Tjmdall says ; " TVe know no more 
of the origin of force than of the origin of matter ; 
where matter is, force is, for we only know matter 
through its forces." In his very scholarly work on 
Heat, he grandly put the whole question thus : — 

" The discoveries and generalizations of modern 
science constitute a poem more sublime than has ever 
vet been addressed to the imao-ination. The natural 
philosopher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which 
beggar those of Milton. So great and grand are they, 
that in the contemplation of them a certain force of 
character is requisite to preserve us from bewilderment. 
Look at the integrated energies of our world — the stored 
power of our coal-fields, or winds and rivers, our fleets, 
armies, and guns. "What are they ? They are all gene- 
rated by a portion of the sun's energy, which does not 
amount to one thousand three hundred millionth part 
of the whole. This is the entire fraction of the sun's 
force intercepted by the Earth, and we convert but a 
small fraction of this fraction into mechanical energy. 
Multiplying all our powers by millions of millions, we 
do not reach the sun's expenditure. And still, notwith- 



60 A STELLAE KEY. 

standing this enormous drain, in the lapse of human 
history we are unable to detect a diminution of his store. 
Measured by our largest terrestrial standards, such a 
reservoir of power is infinite ; but it is our privilege to 
rise above these standards, and to regard the sun him- 
self as a speck in infinite extension, a mere drop in the 
universal sea. We analyze the space in which he is 
immersed, and which is the vehicle of his power. We 
pass to other systems and other suns, each pouring forth 
energy like our own, but still without infringements of 
the law, which reveals immutability in the midst of 
change, which recognizes incessant transference, conver- 
sion, but neither final gain nor loss. This law general- 
izes the aphorism of Solomon, that there is nothing new 
under the sun, by teaching us to detect everywhere, 
under its infinite variety of appearances, the same pri- 
meval force. To nature nothing can be added ; from 
nature nothing can be taken away ; the sum of her 
energies is constant, and the utmost man can do in 
the pursuit of physical truth, or in the application of 
physical knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the 
never-varying total. The law of conservation rigidly 
excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may 
change to ripples, and ripples to waves — magnitude may 
be substituted for number, and number for magnitude — 
asteroids may aggregate to suns, suns may resolve them- 
selves into fiorse and faunae and florae and faun^ melt 
into air — the flux of power is eternally the same, it rolls 
in music through the ages, and all terrestrial energy — 
the manifestations of life as well as the display of pheno- 
mena — are but modulations." 

The application and weight of all this scientific testi- 



rOECES OF THE IJXIYEE3E. 61 

mony will be Been and felt wlien we come to '^ sum up 
the evidence.'' A few more points must be first made 
clear to reason. According to our scale the materialist 
might say : " Mind, in its slowest and lowest condition, 
is matter ; and the reverse, matter, in its loftiest form 
of motion and highest condition, is mind." But this is 
not our meaning ; nor is it true, in any logical sense. 
Our philosophy is, that the universe is a two-fold unity 
— two eternal manifestations of two substances, which, 
at heart, are One, but eternally twain in the realms of 
Cause and Effect. In the absence of better words, 
these two Substances we term Matter and Mind — inter- 
changeable, convertible, essentially identical, eternally 
harmonious, wedded by the polarities of positive and 
negative forces. 

Recalling our scale of nine steps in the ascending and 
descending processes of Mind and Matter, you will 
perceive that '^ Essence" is the connecting ^'link" 
between the Positive and the Negative hemispheres, 
thus :— 

Positive. Passive. Negative. 



1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 

God, Ideas, Pkixceples, La.ws, Essences, Ethers, Vapors, Fluids, Solids. 

The region of '^ Essences " is the region of ^' magnet- 
isms." This, then, is the true ''link" in the chain, 
which unites the positive side or ''mind" to the "nega- 
tive " side or " matter ;" but, in a finer analysis, it 
will be found more correct to term matter and mind 
" Spirit," with two forms of manifestation ; thus reliev- 



62 A STELLAR KEY. 

ing ''matter" of the epithet of '' grossness," and 
reclaiming " mind" from its long exilement in the awful 
solitudes of unapproachable immateriality. 

Let us recapitulate, and thus ascertain the informa- 
tion obtained : 

1. The rotundity of all bodies in space ; 

2. The circularity of the motions of all bodies ; 

3. The existence of zones in the planetary organiza- 
tion ; 

4. The harmony of relationship between the exterior 
and interior universes ; 

5. "Y^^ polarity of all forms and forces in nature ; 

6. The descent of Spirit to Earth, and the ascent of 
Earth to Spirit. 

7. The eternity and the unity of both hemispheres of 
the univercoelum. 

Now, in order to ascertain the possibility, the proba- 
bility, and the certaintii of the Summer Land Zone, we 
must logically follow ]N'ature's pathway from the region 
of causes to the region of eflects. Her unalterable code is 
plainly and universally indicated, namely, — forms 
msible are effects which flow from corresponding causes 
inmsible, A man's body, for example, is the effect of 
an interior organizing, vivifying, sustaining, spiritual 
individuality. It elaborated his brain, his heart, his 
organs, his senses, and indeed all parts of his physical 
temple; although each part may have been modified, 
and generally is modified and twisted more or less by 
parental instrumentalities and circumstantial influences 
both before and after birth. 

ISTow apply this principle to the organization of the 
vast Stellar Universe. Yv'hat 2:ave to matter the uni- 



F0ECE3 OF THE TIN^IYERSE. 63 

versa! tendency to form globes ? — to roll ont into im- 
mense zones ? — to stratify and continue for innumerable 
ages as revolving belts? — to move in circular paths 
tlirougb the solitudes of immensity ? There is but one 
answer : The spiritual universe is composed of globes, 
of zones, and of belts, which move harmoniously in 
wavy circles of causation through the vaster, deeper, 
higher, more interior heavens of unimaginable in- 
finitude. Men look through telescopes, and discern 
nothino; but the outermost materialized o-arments of 
hidden corresponding spiritualized spheres of light, 
warmth, beauty, fertility, peace, progression, and happi- 
ness. There is just as much ceriaiiitj that the Summer 
Land exists as tliat your mind exists ; for it exists and 
your mind exists upon the one eternal law of cause and 
effect. Your body is a demonstration of an interior 
antecedent corresponding formative individuality ; so 
the solar system exists, a demonstration of an interior 
antecedent corresponding formative spiritual universe. 



64: A STELLAE KEY. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PEINCrPLEtS OF THE FOEMATION OF THE SUMMER 

LAXD. 

The order of the universe is as perfect as its varieties 
are innumerable. The principles engaged in forming 
worlds are incessantly engaged in decomposing them. 
In no other way can perpetual youth be bestowed upon 
the finer bodies and spheres of space. Atoms suf- 
ficiently refined to ascend above the mineral compound, 
enter into the forms of vegetable life. Vegetation, in 
its turn, delegates its finest atoms to enter and build up 
the animal kingdom. The most refined animal atoms 
enter into and support human bodies. And the most 
refined particles of human bodies, which are not 
required to construct and support the "' garment of 
immortality," ascend to form the solids, fluids, and ethers 
of that effulgent Zone to which all human beings are 
incessantly hastening. Thus the eternal youthfulness, 
the healthful and beautiful juvenility, of the spiritual 
universe are established and immutably maintained. 
And now behold the philosophical, the geometrical, the 
musical, the harmonial grandeur and gloriousness of 
the beautiful Whole : — 



FOSMATIOl^^ OF THE StJlIMER LAND. 



65 



GOD. 



MOTHER. 



FATHER. 



SPIRIT 
Pos. 



LOTK & -WISDOM — WILL — WISDOM <fc LOVE. 



AfATTERi '^^^ Fountain! Here atoms receive ( • 

juAiii^.it J ^]^^ omnipotent centrifugal impulsion -I -[ 

^^o- /to go forth. ( •. 



SPIRIT 
Pos. 



The Highest Summer Land in the Spiritual Universe. 



f In this belt all matter is a boundless f -!.'•!• 

MATTER ! rotating ocean of Fire, Ileat, Light, j \' i ; 

Neg. I Electricity, and Magnetism, containing j '*• •', 

l^ all Forces. L • • * * • 



SPIRIT 
Pos. 



A Celestial Inhabited Sphere " ISTearer, my God, to Thee." 



f The unimaginable ocean of chemical f 
new channels in ! 



MATTER • substance has cut 

Neg. j space ; yet all revolving like cohesive 
(. seas of Fire and Force. 



L : 



SPIRIT 
Pos. 



A More Interior Suramer Land. 



r In this belt of cosmical matter the f .*,* *,- *,'^ *^* *,* *,* «^ » 

MATTPP I "^^st masses of solar atoms are suf- | ..' '• '^' •' '. '. .' .* .* .* 

■^^^^-L^-^-L^j ficiently cool to separate, to obey the ^ • ?-^.? ."• . -"^.^ "T-^.? f-^.-^.^ 

I law of cohesion, and to organize 1 .* v.*.f«.* "^^ "i^^'lk'^ iC **r^ 

1, suns. 1^ •oooooooooooooo 



Neg. 



SPIRIT 

Pos. 



A Higher Summer Land. 



f This is a broad zone of inter-co- 

MATTFP ' ^®si^'® cometary and meteoric nuclei, 

^ jsjgo- ^'i containing no stratified orbs. It is per- 

** i fectly illustrated by the present con- 

l^dition of Satm-n's rings. 



O oooooooooooooo 00 

•*o ooooooooooooooo 

•% * *, -H-'-H- *^*' * * * -S-^** 4 ** 

• o'o o o b o* c 6 o°o o o b o' 



SPIRIT 
Pos. 



""T^HMilky.Way; 



The Summer L^nd, which all enter at death. 

f This represents the gorgeous Galaxy f 9r- % ^^p^ ®^ ^^ '^,^ ^^ ^^ ® n- 9 ^.~ ^^ 

visible in the heavens spanning from I 'f^*,% ,,f .*^*"^ .*-*". *'frv^^ 

I northeast to southwest, called "The ^,£.'^. ^° ^'.'^^'Rs'^'J^?'^ R 

Some of its sims are I •*-,* *\r 'o'dd *cfVo'co 

I distant more than 19.250,000.000,000 ' *''''* '^ •-' i^. -'^ - 

miles. Our sun and planets belong to • ^^"^ * .% . •^.« -^ 't^' 

1 this belt. L •' . . .®.* ? ®. ®.*.*.^^' 



66 



A STELLAE KEY. 



The Spiritual Spheres have been recently termed 
Slimmer Lands, and there are, counting man's earthly 
existence thejirst sphere of spirit life, in all six spheres 
in the ascending flight toward Deity, who fills the 
Seventh. Sphere, and is infinitely greater than millions 
of sucli univercoelums as man can conceive. 

Observe this universal and unerring Jaiv of the Super- 
nal Administration : The Central Positive Power rej^els 
the 2^h]/sical^ and at tlie same moment attracts the 
spiritual *j therefore the circulation of matter is from 
the center outward, whilst spirit travels from the out- 
side toward the center. These two reciprocal processes, 
or opposite currents, are incessantly flowing. The 
inconceivable oceans of world-building materials expand 
and swell, and pour outwardly from the eternally flow- 
ing and inexb.austible Fountain at the center ; at the 
same time the innumerable multitudes of individualized 
spiritual and angelic men, women, and children, from 
off all tlie human-bearing planets in space, 
^^ , ' are progressively and irresistibly marching 

~~ inwardlytoward the great positive attractive 
Center, and constantly approaching nearer 
and nearer the eternal sun-sphere of Father 
and Mother ! 

The formation of the different Summer 
Lands can be seen in the principles which 
unrolled like an infinite scroll the suns and 
stars of the serene firmament. Whence 
comes the power, asks Prof. Tyndall, ou 
the part of the molecules, to compel the 
solar energy to take determinate forms ? Water may be 
raised fi^om the sea-level to a hio^h elevation, and then 




FOKMATION OF THE SUMXEii LAXD. 67 

permitted to descend. In descending it may be made 
to assume various forms — to fall in cascades, to spirt in 
fountains, to boil in eddies, or to flow tranquilly along a 
uniform bed. It may, moreover, be caused to set com- 
plex macliinery in motion, to tm^n millstones, throw 
shuttles, work saws and hammers, and drive piles. But 
every form of power here indicated would be derived 
from the original power expended in raising the water to 
the height from which it fell. There is no energy gene- 
rated by the machinery; the work performed by the 
water in descending is merely the parceling out and 
distribution of the work expended in raising it. In 
precisely this sense is all the energy of plants and 
animals the parceling out and distribution of a power 
originally exerted by the sun. In the case of the 
water, the source of the power consists in the forcible 
separation of a quantity of the liquid from the lowest 
level of the earth's surface, and its elevation to a higher 
position, the power thus expended being returned by 
the water in its descent. 

In the case of vital phenomena, the source of power 
consists in the forcible separation of the atoms of chemi- 
cal compounds by the sun — of the carbon and hydrogen, 
for example, of the carbonic acid and water diftused 
throughout the atmosphere, from the oxygen with which 
they are combined. This separation is effected in the 
leaves of plants by solar energy. The constituents of 
tlie carbonic acid and water are there torn asunder in 
" spite of their mutual attraction, the carbon and hydi'O- 
j gen are stored up in the wood, and the oxygen is set 
free in the air. When the wood is bm-ned the oxygen 
recombines with the carbon, and the heat then given 



68 A STELLAR KEY. 

out is of the precise amount drawn from the sun to 
effect the previous '' reduction " of the carbonic acid. 
The reunion of the carlDon with the oxygen is similar 
to the reunion of onr falling water with the earth from 
which it had been separated. We name the one action 
'^ gravity " and the other '^ chemical affinity ; " bnt these 
different names must not mislead us regarding the 
qualitative identity of the two forces. They are both 
attraction^ and, to the intellect, the falling of carbon 
atoms as:ainst oxvp;en atoms is not more difficult of con- 
ception than the falling of water to the earth. 

It is generally supposed that our earth once belonged 
to the sun. from which it was detached in a molten 
condition. Hence arises the question, '' Did that incan- 
descent w^orld contain latent within itself the elements 
of life ?" Or, supposing a planet carved from our present 
sun, and set spinning around him at the distance of our 
earth, would one of the consequences of its refrigeration 
be the development of organic forms ? Strucfitral forces 
certainly lie latent in the molten mass, whether or not 
those forces reach to the extent of formino; a i3lant or an 
animal. All the marvels of crystalline force, all those 
wonderful branching frost-ferns which cover our win- 
dow-panes on a winter morning — the exquisite molecu- 
lar architecture w^hich is now known to belong to the 
ice of our frozen lakes — all this ^ constructiveness' lies 
latent in an amorphous drop of water, and comes into 
play when the water is sufficiently cooled. And who 
will set limits to the possible play of molecular forces in 
the cooling of a planet ? 

Thus the teaching of science is, that the world-con- 
structing forces are '^ latent in the mass," and that the 



F0EMA.TI0I5T OF THE SUJ^IMER LA^'D. 69 

formation of a dew-drop is not less wonderful titan the 
formation of an inhabitable world. The formation of 
spiritualized material belts is a proceeding in the uni- 
verse as natural and rational as the formation of the 
primordial rings out of which all the planets, satellites, 
and lesser bodies were subsequently developed. 

But will not the Spiritual Zones be broken up and 
distributed through space by counter attractions ? The 
spiritual belts cannot be drawn asunder by an exterior 
and superior attraction ; for they are, as we shall here- 
after show, constituted of ultimate or final particles, 
which entertain only very remote affinities for the par- 
ticles and constituents of other bodies in space. 

But the question may arise, " Why is not the Summer 
Land rozmd, like a globe, rather than in the shape of a 
vast Zone or stratified belt ?" 

Geometry gives the true answer to this question. 
This exact and deathless science brings to light the 
figures^ or the forms and shapes, possible to and revealed 
by material bodies. By geometrical principles, all the 
varieties and possibilities of figures in crystalline and 
other bodies can be fully comprehended and deter- 
mined. 

The fundamental law of ISTature, in every departn^ent 
of her organization, seems to be this : The beginning 
and the ending- — the Alpha and the Omega — are in 
perfect and complete correspondence. The two ex- 
tremes meet, facing one another, and thus they embrace ; 
each seeing his own perfect image and perfect likeness in 
the other ! The representation and correspondence — the 
exactness of similitude in outline and in all the details 
— are marvelous in their mathematical and geometrical 



70 A STELLAS KEY. 

j)erfectious. Thus, in very truth, '' extremes meet " — 
primate and ultimate — acorn buried in the ground re- 
appearing in acorn on the topmost bough of the oak — a 
truth exemplified in every growth-circle of vegetable, 
animal, and human life; and in the repetitions of 
national history no less than in the incessant recurrence 
of public crises, and in the periodicities of individual 
experience. 

Apply this law to the primordial structure of the stellar 
universe. What was the Ji?'st figure, what the primary 
form, in which matter appeared ? "Was it originally 
globular? That is, Were the first world-building forms 
rounds like immense balls, or were they spheroidal 
belts of cosmical matter? Let us take testimony of 
Prof. Kirkwood. He adopts the nebular hypothesis 
as the most rational explanation of things, and so de- 
clares that the ^' sun was an exceedingly diftused, ro- 
tating nebula, of spherical or spheroidal form, extending 
beyond the orbit of the most distant planet ; the planets 
as yet having no separate existence. This immense 
sphere of vapor, in consequence of the radiation of heat 
and the continual action of gravity, became gradually 
more dense, which condensation was necessarily attended 
by an increased angular velocity of rotation. At length 
a point was thus reached where the centrifugal force of 
the equatorial parts was equal to the central attraction. 
The condensation of the interior meanwhile continuing, 
the equatorial zone was detached, but necessarily con- 
tinued to revolve around the central mass with the 
same velocity that it had at the epoch of its separation. 
If perfectly unform throughout its entire circu7n- 
ferencey it would continue its motion in an unbrohen 



FOSMATION OF THE Si::M:MEIi LAXD. 71 

ring^ like that of Saturn ; if not, it would probably 
collect into several masses, having orbits nearly iden- 
tical. These masses should assume a spheroidal form, 
with a rotary motion in the dii^ection of that of their 
revolution, because their inferior particles have a less 
real velocity than the superior; they have therefore 
constituted so many planets in a state of vapor. But 
if one of them was sufficiently powerful to unite succes- 
sively by its attraction all the others about its center, 
the ring of vapors would be changed into one spheroidal 
mass, circulating about the sun, with a motion of rota- 
tion in the same direction with that of revolution.'' 




THE PRIMAL FOSil. 



The testimony of popuhir astronomical science there- 
fore is : The primary figure v:as spheroidal. The oval 
form, consequently, is the beginning form of matter — its 
genesis and its exodus also. The original oval or ellip- 
sis is not elongated, remember, is not drawn out, but, 
instead, is shortened^ so as to produce an almost 
geometrically perfect circle, yet always inclined to 
the elliptic. The globe-form, which is the perfectly 
round or sphere-form, is not possible in a body which 
constantly and rapidly revolves in one direction. The 
earth, consequently, is bulged at the equator and cor- 
respondingly flattened at the poles. So of all the 
planets, satellites, and minor bodies ot space. The law 



72 A STELLAR KEY. 

of infallible geometry is : The clhnactric form of 
matter is spheroidal. The broad belt of tlie Summer 
Land is the highest form of spiritualized atoms — the 
ultimate and divinest figure — the final shape of all 
perfectly attenuated and exalted cosmical matter. 

Take, for a further illustration, the scale of sounds in 
the exact science of music. Between the first or lowest 
note and the eighth or highest note, we find all the 
possible intermediate sounds. But the eighth note and 
the first note are essentially the same; or, in otlier 
words, the last sound is a perfect reiteration or repro- 
duction of the first sound ; and it is also the hasis of an- 
other and a higher, but exactly similar scale, adapted to 
the measurement of higher sounds ; and so onward and 
upward, progressiv^ely, like the steps in a fiight of stairs, 
until you attain to as high a sound as can be developed 
by the human voice. This harmonial law of progres- 
sive reproduction — the first becoming last, and the last 
first — will answer the question concerning the zone- 
shape of the Summer Land. 

Unsearchable and incomprehensible as this law of 
correspondence may appear at first sight, yet nothing 
can be more easily read when your senses, intelligence, 
and wisdom unite for work, and seriously devote them- 
selves to the examination. By no other law can man 
perfectly acquire knowledge of those harmonial ties by 
which all and each of the pieces and parts of the uni- 
verse are fastened together. Poets, in moments of 
intuitive exaltation, feel more than the common intelli- 
gei ce can grasp : — 

*' Are not the moniitains, waves, and skies a part 
Of me and of my soul, as I of them ? 



FOEMATIOX OF THE SUMMER LAND. 75 

Is not the love of these deep in my heart 
^Vith a pure passion?" 

In musicj which we have taken for an illustration, 
how exactly mathematical in all its parts, from which 
flow innumerable spiritualizing qualities, effects, and 
enchantments. All art-music is suggested by, derived 
from, and unerringly governed by nature — the source 
of all melody and harmony. The term '* discord ^' in 
music does not mean confusion and antas^onism. Dis- 
cord, accord, and modulation form the august trinity. 
The accord of contrasted sounds — the mathematical 
combination and the unitary development of individual 
discordant notes — unfolds perfect harmony ! 

External music reaches the spirit-ear through the wave- 
undulations of the invisible ether of space. A sound 
is increased in proportion to the number of vibrations 
per second ; thus, " the lowest note of a T-octave piano 
is made by 32 vibrations per second, the highest by 
7.680, while each intermediate note has its fixed num- 
ber.." The pitch of a note is ascertained, and the num- 
ber of its vibrations per second determined by its posi- 
tion on the five parallel lines termed '' the staff." And 
it is another beautiful miracle (surprise ?) in music, that 
the d^ejpest natural note, which can only be reached by 
man's voice, is E, below the line of the second staff", 
and the Idgliest natural note, which can only be sounded 
by a woman's voice, is designated E, above the first 
staff. There is in this beautiful adaptation a progression 
of voices just three raasculmes anrJ three ferainiiies j 
man represents and develops the '^base," the -'bari- 
tone,'-'- and the '' tenor," whilst woman unfolds the 
three higher refinements, a greater number of sound 

4 



Y4 A STELLAR KEY. 

waves per second, in the '^ contralto " and ^^ soprano," 
the highest notes of which only woman's voice can 
reach. Byron speaks of — 

*' The soul and source of music, which makes known 
Eternal harmony, and sheds a charm 
Like to the fabled Cytherea's zone, 

Blending ah things with beauty ; 'twould disarm 
The spectre Death, had he substantial power to harm." 

It is a wonderful demonstration of the inherent 
genius of man's mind, that in a concert of music a good 
ear can attend to the different parts of the music sepa- 
rately^ or to all at once ! " In the latter case," says the 
metaphysician, Sir William Hamilton, " the mind is 
constantly varying its attention from one part to the 
other; the rapidity of its operations giving no percep- 
tible interval of time." What are the facts in this 
example? In a musical concert we have a multitude 
of different instruments and voices, emitting at once an 
infinity of different sounds. These all reach the ear at 
the same indivisible moment in which they perish, and, 
consequently, if heard at all — much more if their 
mutual relation or harmony be perceived — they must 
be all heard simultaneously^ This is evident. For if 
the mind can attend to each minimum of sound only 
successively, it consequently requires a minimum of 
time in which it is exclusively occupied with each mini- 
mum of sound. Now in this minimum of time there 
coexist with it, and with it perish, many minima of 
sound which, ex hypothesis are not perceived, are not 
heard, as not attended to. In a concert, therefore, on 
this doctrine, a small number of sounds only could be 



FORMATIOX OF THE SUMMER LAXD. Yo 

perceived, and above this petty maximum all sounds 
would be to the ear as zero. But what is the fact ? 
Xo concert, however numerous its instruments, has yet 
been found to have reached, far less to have surpassed, 
the capacity of the mind and its organ. How perfectly 
true it is that — 

* Nature sounds the music of the spirit ; ^ 

Sweetly to her worshiper she sings, 
All the glow, the grace she doth inherit, 
Round her trusting child she fondly flings." 

According to the reproductive law, a broad, efful- 
gent, rotating belt or zone is the first figure or form 
revealed in the geometrical music scale of world-build- 
ing in the Stellar Universe ; so also is it the highest and 
last figure or form of which matter, in its most exalted 
condition of ethereal and essential refinement, is capable 
of assuming ; and thus, consequently and logically, we 
actually find organized and revolving all the ascend- 
ing succession of Spheres in the constitution of the uni- 
yercoelum ! 

And what is most remarkable and memorable is, 
that the seven ascending scales of Spiritual Zones, with 
their intervals of suns and planets, were discerned and 
described by the author, just as they were seen before 
he lived, and as they have been frequently perceived 
and pictured by others since his first account was pub- 
lished. And each seer was separate fi^om and independ- 
ent of the other not only, but the positive existence and 
identical structure of the Spheres were discovered and 
described by each without any external knowledge or 
hint of the sublime geometrical law ; which law, you 



76 A STELLAR KEY. 

now perceive, is at once an infallible explanation and 
an incontrovertible demonstration, that the physical 
nniverse is spheroidal in shape, that it is composed of 
a progressive series of successively ascending circles 
of suns and planets, and that it is nothing but the 
covering, the material garment, the organized body of 
that more interior and spiritual universe which was 
"" not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 



HARMONIES OF THE UXH^EESE. 77 



CHAPTEE XL 

DEMONSTRATIONS OF THE HARMONIES OF THE TJNIYERSE. 

The Harmonial Pliilosophy of the uniyerse would 
receive vast aid from the demonstrations of mathemati- 
cal and geometrical science, but this is not the place to 
introduce such elaborate calculations and convincing 
measurements as are impatient to take the stand as 
positive witnesses. We hope that minds gifted with 
mathematical and geometrical knowledge will feel 
moved to enter upon this enchanting inquiry. 
Science gives definite conceptions of the order and 
wisdom of the universe. Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid, 
Apollonius, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Kepler, ITewton — 
all great men in the science of Geometry, and therefore 
all were great believers in the order and unchangeable 
goodness of the infinite system. 

Most minds, however, find satisfaction in analogical 
reasoning, in contrasts, in correspondential and sym- 
bolical forms of thought, and in this manner perceive 
the glory and application of great principles. For 
such, more intuitive idealists, who do not like the rigid 
exactness of geometrical ^^ fluxions," "conic sections," 
" difi*erential calculus," &c., I am impressed to adopt 
and present a variety of scales which are not less truth- 
ful than mathematics, while they are far more effective 
with the great mass of minds. 



78 



J 



A STELLAR KEY. 



^A.4 



GOD. 



% 



NEGATIVE. 



ITE&ATIVE. 



IDEAS. 



PRINCIPLES. 



LAWS. 



ESSENCES. 



NEGATIVE. 



ETHERS, VAPORS, FLUIDS, SOLIDS. 



HAEMOXIES OF THE rXITERSE. 79 

The four primal forms of motion and matter are 
expressed at the foundation in Ethers. Vapors, Fluids, 
Solids. The modern discovery of science, \h2X polarity 
is inseparable from the various conditions of matter, 
serves our purpose from every possible ppiilt of obser- 
vation. The simplicity of the last scale will seem more 
profound from a more elaborate presentation. The two 
columns of •* Positives " and '^ Negatives ^' may assist 
yom' mind to a still clearer conception of Xature's 
infinite interlacings of harmony. 

The term '' Earth," in our scales, is employed in the 
general sense, and not with reference merely to the 
jolanet on which we live. Earth is earth, as much on 
Juno as on Venus ; earth is earth, as much on Vesta 
and the Moon as on Xeptune, and the term is applicable 
to all the more remote bodies in our solar community. 

TTie word, therefore, is used to signify that state of 
matter, anywhere in the universe, which is known as 
the coldest in temperature and the loioest in the degree 
of atomic motion. Truly has it been said, that the hol- 
low ball on which we live contains within itself the 
elements of its own destruction. TTithin the outer 
crust — the cool temperatm^e of which supports animal 
and vegetable life, and solidifies the stone, coal and 
metallic ores so important, to our well-being — there 
exists a mass of fluid igneous matter. Some of this 
matter occasionally escapes through the mouth of a 
volcano, or makes its presence felt by an earthquake; 
but neither the earthquake nor the volcano is necessary 
to prove that fire exists in the earth. At the depth of 
2,iS0 yards, water boils; lead melts at the depth of 
3,4:00 yards. There is red heat at the depth of seven 



80 



A STELLAB KEY. 



o 
o 

a. 
H 



ft 



feOfl 


^ 




c3 


n 






s 


o 


is: 












6 


;1 


r^ 




<u 




n 




o 


<D 








a 






oa 


bo 




<i) 


H 


c 


o 


^ 


(C 






H 






c3 

a 



's 




<!> 


« 


?l1 


H 


r^ 


H 


f^H 


^ 


<1 




^ 


H 





Explanation. 

^The fountain Source of 
all Laws, Forces, Princi- 
ples, Ideas, is universally 
called i^r^ 



^ The universality of motion, 
heat, light, life, sensation, 
order, beauty,intelligence. 
love, will, wisdom, re- 
veal i^=* 



*yThe uniformity and uni- 
versality of these laws of 
cause and effect unfold 
the higher revelations of 
mind, called i^=* 



The first manifestation of 
Mind is Motion; the ef- 
fect of Force; and the 
modes of the actions of 
this Motion are termed n^" 



Ether-atoms are atoms ir 
the highest possible de 
gree of motion, consti' 
tuting an infinitely rare 
medium, chemical, dy- 
namic, elastic, and all- 
pervading, called '^W^ 



' The vapor-atoms ascend one 
degree higher in the scale 
and expand throughout 
all space with an in- 
crease of mo tion, and are 
termed ^P°* 



Positive. 



GOD. 



IDEAS. 



PRIISrCIPLES. 



LAWS. 



ESSENCES. 



ETHERS. 



^PTegatiye. 



SPIPJT. 



REASOK 



POWER. 



FORCE. 



MAGNETISM. 



The fluid-atoms receive an 
increase motion with an 
increase of temperature, 
cohesion is overcome, and 
they expand into the con- 
dition known as |^^ 



The solidity and cohesion 
of the same atoms dis- 
appear when they are 
visited by a given quan- 
tity of motion ; heat is 
developed, and those be 
come ^p" 



Atoms, when slowest in 
motion and coldest in 
temperature, drop into a 
compact body, for which 
the general term is %W" \ 



VAPORS. 



FLUIDS. 



SOLIDS. 



ELECTRICITY. 



ATMOSPHERE. 



WATER. 



EARTH. 



HAEMONEES OF THE UXTTERSE. 81 

miles, and if we adopt the temperature as calculated by 
Morveau's corrected scale of Wedgewortli's pyrometer, 
Tre find that the earth is fluid at the depth of one 
hundred miles. 

Beautiful heavenly harmony is displayed in all the 
realms of being. Luminous fountains flow full of 
eternal ideas, rolling the universe in harmonious 
splendors. The templed perfections of God shine 
throughout the mountains of Truth. 

Great souls are filled Tritli love, 

Great brows arc calm ; 
Serene within their might they soar above 

The whirlwind and the storm. 

In vjords the Godly man is mute — 

In deeds he hves — 
TTouldst know the tree ? examine well the fruit I 

The flower ? the scent it gives I 

Great thoughts are still as stars, 

Great thoughts are high ; 
They grasp the soul where 'neath the prison bars 

It languidly doth he. 

They bring it forth on wings 

Sublnne and grand ! 
"Where in the night of deeply-hidden things 

It joyfully doth expand. 

Like sentinels they stand, 

And softly keep 
Their silent watches, where a ruthless band 

Of lurking errors creep. 

Like pearls of starry hght 

That burn and glow, 
They pierce the shadowy vail, and o'er the night 

Their mystic splendors throw. 
4* 



82 A STELLAR KEY. 

Great truths ! ah, yes, more grand, 

More light and high, 
Than hopes that thrill the wires throughout the landl 

Than stars that gem the sky ! 

Grreat truths ! ah, yes, more fair, 

Sublime and deep, 
Than burning thoughts that tremble on the air I 

Than the mysteries of sleep ! 

From nature's Soul they spring 

To joy and hght, 
And on imagination's quivering wing 

They take their onward flight. 

In beauty's garb they rise, 

All fresh as morn. 
And on their pinions, spread for sunlit skies. 

Our souls are gladly borne. 

With myriad wrongs they wage 

Ati endless war ; 
And shed their luster o'er each passing age, 

Like Morning's golden star. 

Great truths I they come from God ! 

In heaven have birth ; 
They spring to hfe from each prophetic word 

That thrills the earth I 

The correspondence between Mind and Matter, and 
tlie beautiful progressions in the scale of colors, with 
their many and diversified polarizations, is as perfect and 
self-evident as any sum in mathematics. Commence 
at the bottom of the scale, ^^ Eed," and ascend to the 
climax in that color, " White,'' which is the garment of 
omniscient Jehovah, and the emblem among human 
angels of purity, fidelity, and truth. " Light,' 



if 



HAEMONIES OF THE tUSTVEESE. 



83 









8. Negative. 
1. Negative. 
6. N'egative. 
6. IN'egative. 
4. Negative. 
3. Negative. 
2. Negative. 
1. Negative. 



LiCHTe 



WHITE. 



VIOLET. 



INDIGO. 



BLUE. 



GREEN. 



YELLOW. 



ORANGE. 



RED. 



Positive. 
Positive. 
Positive. 



Positive. 



Positive. 



Positive, 



Positive. 



Positive. 



84 



A STELLAE KEY. 



musical scale of colors, occupies the throne of God in 
the other scale, and in each you find the 3-6-9 points 
in geometrical ratio, or the 3 times 3, by which the 
whole system is demonstrated to be correlated parts of 
one harmonious manifestation of infinite wisdom and 
love. 

Who can with indifference behold all this sublime 
harmony ? The child of Nature is overwhelmed with 
wonder and happiness. The spirit of God enters your 
understanding, ascends the throne of your reason, and 
declares the whole gospel of philosophical truth. Look 
at the scale of colors from another point of observation, 
by which we learn of the wondrous activities of the 
principles of Light. 



SCALE OF THE SEVEN 
COLORS. 


WoAje lengths 

in 10 mil- 

lionths of an 

inch. 


Number of un- 
dulations per 
inch. 


Numler of un- 
dulations per 
second in 
Billions. 


1. RED 

2. ORANGE 


266 
240 
22^ 
211 
196 
185 
167 


37.640 
41.610 
44.000 
47.460 
51.110 
54.070 
59.750 


458 
506 


3. YELLOW 


535 


4. G-REEN 


577 


5. BLUE 


622 


6. INDIGO 


658 


•7. VIOLET 


727 







In the previous scale it was found that " Essences," 
which are eliminated and revealed in the forms of force 
called " magnetism/' is the middle principle — ^the link 



HARMONIES OF THE UNIYEESE. 85 

connecting the sphere of Mind with the sphere of 
Matter. 

Positive. Passive. Negative. 

TThite. Tiolet. Indigo. Green. Yellow. Orange. Red. 

(<•) (6.) (5.) (4) (3.) (2.) (1.) 

The same law of correspondence appears in the natu- 
ral classification and polarization of colors ; showing 
that "' Green " is the connecting link between the three 
majors and the three minors. Eemember that, in all 
the scales we introduce, the Jirrst is the lowest and most 
inferior ; and our true meaning is never seen unless the 
ascent is intellectually made from the bottom, up ; or 
from the figure '^ 1," to the highest in the scale, just as 
jou naturally walk up a flight of stairs, or as a tree 
grows upward from its germ-genesis in the soil below. 

It is not generally known that Swedenborg antici- 
pated Goethe's Theory of Colors."^ In the Ay^canay 
§ 1042, he writes : " In order to the existence of color, 
there must needs be some substance darkish and 
brightish, or black and white, on which, when the rays 
of light from the sun fall, according to the various 
temperature of the dark and bright, or black and white, 
from the modification of the influent rays of light, there 
exist colors, some of which take more or less from the 
darkish and black, some more or less from the brightish 
and white, and hence arises their diversity.'' 



* Persons have objected to, and treated as simple and cliildisji, the 
introduction of colors in the form of badges and emblems, in the "Chil- 
dren's Progressive Lyceum," on the supposition that there is no interior 
educational significance in colors. Let such minds ask God u-hy colors 
exist ! 



86 A STELLAR KEY. 

The positive "white," and the negative, "black," 
was apprehended by Swedenborg as the natural basis, 
in the intervals of which, as between the first and eighth 
note in music, all the varieties and tints of colors ap- 
pear. In like manner, and upon the same principle of 
unerring correspondence, we affirm that in the interval 
between "Earth," negative^ and " Spirit," J96>5^V^^;^, all 
the diversified wonders of Matter and Mind are un- 
folded. 

An expositor of Swedenborg's philosophy of the phe- 
nomenal universe — which seem to exist without and to 
press up against our bodily senses — thus, as a kind 
of synopsis, states the grand idealism of his revered 
master : — 

" What we call Nature, meaning by that term the 
universe of existence, mineral, vegetable, and animal, 
which seems to us infinite in point of space and eternal 
in point of time, is yet in itself, or absolutely, void both 
of infinity and eternity ; the former appearance being 
only a sensible product and correspondence of a relation 
which the universal heart of man is under to the Divine 
Love, and the latter, a product and correspondence of 
the relation which the universe of the human mind is 
under to the Divine Wisdom. Thus Xature is not in the 
least what it sensibly purports to be, namely, absolute 
and independent ; but, on the contrary, is at every 
moment, both in whole and in part, a pure phenomenon 
or efiPect of spiritual causes as deep, as contrasted, and 
yet as united, as God's infinite love and man's unfathom- 
able want. In short, Swedenborg describes ISTature as 
a perpetual outcome or product in the sphere of sense 
of an inward supersensuous marriage which is forever 



HARM0J5TIES OF THE TJNIYEKSE. 87 

growing and forever adjusting itself between Creator 
and creature, between God's infinite and essential 
bounty and our infinite and essential necessity." 

In this statement we regret that Swedenborg, or 
rather his intelligent pupil, employs the term "Nature" 
as synonymous with Earth or Matter. If this beautiful 
and indispensable word was used in the sense of that 
which expresses the eternal order and perfect beauty of 
the infinite Father and Mother, and in its place " Mat- 
ter" be written, then we could most perfectly accept 
the philosophy as unquestionably true, because, in its 
essential points, it is exactly what we have been urging 
throughout these pages. 

The positive and negative manifestations of color can 
be more clearly explained by a scale of what are called 
''complementary colors." These contrasts are the 
results of careful observation, analysis, and experimen- 
tation. 

The sublime harmonies of the universe appear more 
and more as we extend our researches into the penetra- 
lium of causative principles. For example, man's five 
senses are organized progressively — each finer and 
higher than the other — corresponding with mathe- 
matical exactness to the five ascending degrees of 
matter. 

Solid matter must be raised by expansion to thejlind 
condition before his tongue can taste it ; solid matter 
must become vajpor before his nose can smell it ; solid 
matter must become ether before his ears can hear it ? 
solid matter must become " essence " before his eyes can 
see it ; but solid matter and man's hody can meet, and 
sensation is elicited by resistance. The eyes do not see 



8S 



A STELLAR KEY. 



the ethereal waves of sound ; tlie ears do not perceive 
the ma^^6^^^(? undulations of light ; the olfactory nerves 
do not realize the fluid condition of solids ; neither does 
the tongue taste the vapors (the atmosphere and odors) 
which so readily record their presence upon the sense 
of smell. 

COMPLEMENTARY PARTS OR DIVISIONS OF LIGHT. 

Positive. Negative. 



WHITE. 



BLACK. 







Violet. 


Yellow-Green. 


1 " 




Indigo. 


Orange -Yellow. 


tS 




Blue. 


Orange-Red. 


[ntermed 
or transi 


ate j 
tional. 1 


Green. 


Reddish-Tiolet. 




r 


Tellow. 


Indigo-Blue. 


1 . 




Orange. 


Azure-Blue. 


. 


Red. 


Bluish- Green. 



The essences and ethers and vapors and fluids of 
matter report themselves each to the appropriate sense. 



HAEMOXIES or THE UXIYERSE. 89 

In Matter as in Mind, we behold the unutterable har- 
monies of nn erring Ideas, Principles, and Laws. The 
remarkable adjustments and adaptations of matter in 
its five conditions to man's five senses, must be obvious 
to every reflecting mind. Indeed, without such pro- 
gressive ascensions and reciprocating polarizations of 
matter, man's reason and spirit could never arrive at 
any definite consciousness that there is a phenomenal 
world lying about him. The following scale of corre- 
spondences may bring these beautiful adaptations clearly 
into your understanding : — 

FiTE Senses. Five Fuxctioxs. Five CArsES. F£ve Co>-Dmoxs. 

5. Eyes Seeing Essences ^lagnetism . 

4. Ears Hearing Ethers Electricity. 

3. Xose Smelling Vapors Atmosphere . 

2. Tongue Tasting Fluids Water. 

1. Bodj Eeehng Solids Earth. 

There is a yet more comprehensive generalization. 
See how beautifully harmonious ! Thus absolute Spirit 
is God ; in man, the miniature effect of the infinite 
cause comes out in Existence and Individuality. In 
the infinite, Ideas are the conscious principles of pure 
Eeason ; in man, the finite effects ultimated and blos- 
somed out, are Intuition and Intelligence. The foun- 
tain of causation, as it harmoniously flows outward and 
downward into human rivers of individualized life, may 
be tabulated thus : — 

niVIXITY. nrMAXITY, 

Fathee. Mother. Max. Woman. 

God is pure Spirit ultimated. in Existence and iNDivrDUALiTT. 

Ideas are divine Eeason manifested as Intellect and Inttition. 

Principles are piire 'Powub. knoicn as motions Centrifugal ancf Centripetal, 

Forces becoine Lawf expressed a^ Will and PRODrcTioN. 



90 A STELLAPw KEY. 

The principles of universal relationsliips reward 
richly all who study and comprehend them. Unless you 
do study them, you will not be convinced that the Spir- 
itual Zone rests scientifically and philosophically upon the 
natural and indestructible order of the universe. You 
mii8t study, or, at least, you ought to study, think, and 
reason, until you come to perceive and comprehend 
these grand progressive truths, namely : That the Solid 
world was once Fluid ; that fluid was once Vapor; that 
yapor was once Ether; that ether was once Essence; 
that essence is the highest material connecting link for 
the operation of positive spiritual Laws ; that these 
natural inherent laws constitute a negative meduim for 
the manifestation of invisible celestial positive Force ; 
that this force is the negative side of a yet more posi- 
tive expression called Power ; that this last potential 
demonstration is animated by interior intelligence and 
more positive energies termed Principles ; that these im- 
mutable principles of the universe are external methods 
of positive, and still more interior, Ideas ; that ideas are 
the self-thinking, inter-intelligent, purely-spiritual attri- 
butes and properties of the Divine Positive Mind. 

And you should study and contemplate these grand 
truths until you perceive, as by the awakening and 
opening of your interior senses, that, from the innume- 
rable multitude of stars down '' to the lulled lake and 
mountain coast," all is concentered in a life of inter- 
laced affinities and reciprocated relationships, "where 
not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, but hath a part of 
being." Tes, you should think upon these inexhausti- 
ble glories until deep thoughts make you " silent," 
until you grow "breathless" with the immensity of 



• HAEM0XIE3 OF THE UKIVEE3E. 91 

liigli and holy feeling ; yea, until in your open soul " ali 
heaven and earth are still," while the life of your spirit 
blends its everlasting destiny with the eternally rolling 
splendors and indestructible unities of Truth. 

But you must not " dream." For cold, exact 
Science, like the moon of truth — of which Philosophy 
is both sun and stars — walks over the earth and across 
the skies, heartlessly ; but he is armed with clean- 
cutting instruments of analysis and observation ; and 
so it will not avail you to turn away from Science be- 
cause its ways are fatiguing, and idly bask your reason 
in the more congenial sunshine of generalization, below 
the silent spheres. 

" Under the influence of passion," says Prof. Hamil- 
ton, the metaphysician, "men seek honor, but not 
truth. They do not cultivate what is most valuable in 
reality, but what is most valuable in opinion. They 
disdain, perhaps, what can be easily accomplished, and 
apply themselves to the obscure and recondite ; but as 
the vulgar and easy is the foundation on which the ra.ro 
and arduous is built, they fail even in attaining the 
object of their ambition, and remain with only a farrago 
of confused and ill-assorted notions. In all its phases, 
self-love is an enemy to philosophical progress ; and the 
history of philosophy is filled with the illusions of 
which it has been the source. On the one side it has 
led men to close their eyes against the most evident 
truths which were not in harmony w^ith their adopted 
opinions. It is said there was not ' a physician in 
Europe, above the age of forty, who would admit 
Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. 
On the other hand, it is finely observed by Bacon, that 



92 A STELLAR KEY. 

^ the eye of the human intellect is not dry, but receives 
a suffusion from the will and the affections,' so that it 
may almost be said to engender any science it pleases. 
Let men throw off their old prejudices, and come with 
hearts willing to receive knowledge, and understandings 
open to conviction. Unless ' ye become as little chil- 
dren, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.' Such 
is true religion ; such, also, is true philosophy. Phil- 
osophy requires an emancipation from the yoke of 
foreign authority, a renunciation of all blind adhesion 
to the opinions of our age and pountry, and a purifica- 
tion of the intellect from all assumptive beliefs. Unless 
we can cast off the prejudices of the man, and become 
as children, docile and unperverted, we need never hope 
to enter the temple of philosophy. It is the neglect 
of this primary condition which has mainly occasioned 
men to wander from the unity of truth^ and caused the 
endless variety of religious and philosophical sects." 

The unity of truth, the correlation of inherent ideas, 
the harmonious correspondence and fixed relationships 
of things, constitute the central charm of all intellectual 
effort and research. It is both consoling and exalting 
to know, for example, that the jviatter of the living 
organizations of the universe is identical (that is, the 
same in essence as that) with which the inorganic 
forms of the world are constituted. This truth brings all 
things together. And it is indispensable to our philoso- 
phy of the Summer Land. It shows that the forces in| 
your organs are the same as the forces — gravitational/ 
chemical, mechanical, electrical, spiritual. With Prof. 
Huxley, you logically come to the broad conclusion that 
" not only as to living matter itself, but as to 'the forces 



^ HARMONIES OF THE UXIYERSE. 93 

that matter exerts, there is a close relationship between 
the organic and the inorganic world — the difference be- 
tween them arising from the diverse combination and 
disposition of identical forces, and not from anj 
primary diyersity, as far as we can see." 

In examinino; the relations subsistino; between man's 
senses, we find that the nniverse may be conceived as 
^'a polygon of a thousand or a hundred thousand sides 
or facets — and each of these sides or facets mav be con- 
ceived as representing one special mode of existence. 
Now, of these thousand sides or modes all may be 
equally essential, but three or four only may be turned 
toward us, or be analogous to our organs. One side or 
facet of the universe, as holding a relation to the organ 
of sight, is the mode of luminous or visible existence; 
another, as proportional to the organ of hearing, is the 
mode of sonorous or audible existence ; and so on. But 
if every eye to see, if every ear to hear, were annihilated, 
the modes of existence to which these organs now stand 
in relation — that which could be seen, that which could 
be heard — would still remain ; and if the intelligences, 
reduced to the three senses of touch, smell, and taste, 
were then to assert the impossibility of any modes of 
being except those to which these three senses w^ere 
analogous, the procedure would not be more unwar- 
ranted, than if we now ventured to deny the possible 
reality of other modes of material existence than those 
to the perception of which our five senses are accom- 
modated." 

In this volume we must fortify our positions, relative 
to the substantiality of the Summer Land, by laying a 
broad foundation in the principles and facts of science. 



9i A STELLAE KEY. 



I 



Hence my impressions carry me directly into the con- 
cmTent testimony of living philosophers and scientific 
men. If I were to present exclusively my own interior 
perceptions, and leave mmoticed all the important cor- 
roborations of positive science, the world would discard 
the whole as mere ''speculation." 

Hence now I refer you to a physiological authority : 
'^ All things which are in the brain of man are arranged 
into series, and, as it Avere, into fascicles ; and into 
series within series, thus into fascicles. That sucli an 
arrangement has place, is evident from the arrange- 
ment of all things in the body, where fibers appear 
arranged into fascicles, and little glands into collections 
of glands, and this in the body throughout ; still more 
perfectly in the purer parts which are not discernible 
by the naked eye ; this fasciculation is j)rincipally pre- 
sented to view m the hrain^ in the two substances 
there, one of which is called cortical, and the other 
medullary ; the case is not unlike in the purer principles, 
and at length in the most pure, where the forms which 
receive them are the very forms of life ; that forms or 
substances are recipients of life, may be manifest from 
the singular things which appear in the living; also 
that recipient forms or substances are arranged in a 
manner the most suitable for influx of life ; without the 
reception of life in substances, which are forms, there 
would not be given any living thing in the natural 
world, nor in the spiritual world ; series of the most 
pure stamina, like fascicles, are what constitute those 

forms A.% the External acts or is acted 

upon, so the Internals also act or are acted upon, for 
there is a perpetual confasciculation of the whole. For 



HAEMOXIES OF THE OTITERSE. 95 

example, take in the body some common covering, as 
the pleura, which is the common covering of the breast, 
or of the heart and kings, and examine it with, an ana- 
tomical eye, or, if yon have not made this your par- 
ticular study, consult anatomists, and they will tell you 
that this common covering, by various circumvolutions, 
and afterward by exsertions or derivations from itself, 
finer and finer, enters into the inmost substance of the 
lungs, even to the smallest bronchial ramifications, and 
into the follicles themselves, which are the beginnings 
of the lungs : Xot to mention its progression afterward 
by the trachea to tlie larynx toward the tongue ; from 
which it is evident that there is a perpetual connection 
of the Outmost with the Inmost, wherefore as the Out- 
most acts or is acted upon, so also the Interiors from 
the Inmost or Intimates act or are acted upon." 

Physiologists, as a class, are not seers of the spiritual 
witiiin the natural. They observe organs, study functions, 
trace the nerve-connections throughout the economy, 
but seldom go deeper. But those who do probe below 
the apparent, who explore the interior mansions of the 
temple, find exactly what is embodied in the foregoing 
testimony. As the chemist finds elements within ele- 
ments, as meteorologists find atmospheres within atmo- 
spheres, as geologists find strata within strata, as 
botanists find leaf within leaf and flower within flower, 
so physiologists find organs within organs, and inde- 
scribably finer determinations of vital power within the 
familiar forces of the human body. There is, too, 
everywhere manifested a law from the infinite magazine 
of principles, called the *• centripetal force," whereby 
every thing is cohesively and aftectionately clasped to 



!! 



96 A STELLAR KEY. 



the central Heart. And every tiling would forever play 
and roll around the all-loving centripetal affections of 
the spiritual universe, were it not for the inherent prin- 
ciple. of Justice, the mother of all distributions and the 
father of all equilibriums, whereby every tiling is taken 
in the giant arms of omni])otent ^'centrifugal force," jj 
and is by that masculine force sent abroad through the 
illimitable immensities, and commanded to ''take 
jjlenty of out-door exercise, eat all they can honestly 
get, rest when weary, and earn their own living." And 
so the laws and the essences go from the warm home of 
centripetal attraction, become acquainted, and con- 
jugate together, so that, like Adam and Eve, they may 
inultiply and replenish the universe. On this middle 
ground, in the meeting and mating and prolification of 
laws and essences, we behold the marriage of Mind with 
Matter, and can, if we will, trace out the generations 
which proceed from them — in the diversified forms and 
forces of the world without. 

''Laws" are the most descended modification of the 
central Mind; whilst ''essences" are the most ascended 
form and condition of Matter ; and their marriage is 
followed by the instantaneous vivification of substance 
and the universal manifestation of forces, principles,, 
and ideas. But this marriage ceremony is occurring 
every moment ; it eternally exists, as much behind as 
future ; and yet, owing to the limitations of thought, 
man must " begin " his reasonings and " end " with 
conclusions — the process being true and strictly logical, 
also, so far as it refers scientifically to one cj^cle of 
development in the universal whole. 

By the marriage of Laws with Essences, we obtain. 



HARM0^'IE3 OF THE rXIYERSE. 97 

on the one side, all the successive condescensions and 
condensations of Matter, and, on the other side, all the 
evolutions and manifestations of Mind. Conditions of 
Matter, once called " imponderable substances," float 
out of existence, leaving behind only vibrations or 
''agitations" of the one unchangeable reality termed 
Matter. The translator of Eeichenbach's Odic-JIag- 
netic Letters^ concerning his experiments in Odic-forces, 
has not failed to observe how perfectly that earnest 
philosopher's radiant demonstrations coincide with 
the deductions of inductive science. He recognizes 
tlie conceded maxim that there is no more nor no less 
matter now than there was fifty thousand years ago ; 
there is no more and no less force. '' Wave your 
hand," says Grove; '"the motion has apparently 
ceased, but it is taken up by the air, from the air by 
tlie walls of the room, and so by direct and re-acting 
waves continually communicated, but never destroyed. 
Let us suppose that two balls rolling toward each 
other strike ; the motion appears to be lost, but it 
changes to heat and electricity ; to heat if the balls be 
homogeneous, and electricity if heterogeneous. If the 
balls be o-reased so that thev will o^lance from each other, 
they will lose little motion and create little heat, precisely 
in proportion to the loss of one force is the development 
of others. And the motion or friction of the electrical 
machine develops electricity, electricity produces mag- 
netism, light, heat, and motion, and influences chemical 
affinity, as is seen in the composition and decomposition 
of compound substances. Heat produces motion, and 
our thermometers are constructed to measure heat by 
the expansion or motion which it causes in certain sub- 
7 



98 A STELLAR KEY. 

stances. ITeat also develops electricity. An evidence 
of this may be obtained by heating bars of bismuth 
and antimony, the ends of which are in contact. Unite 
the other ends by an iron wire, and an electric current 
will pass over it and heat the wire. The relationsln'p 
of light to heat is very near, and they closely resemble 
each other in their phenomena. Both are radiated in 
direct lines, reflected, refracted, doubly refracted, and 
polarized. Heat also influences chemical afiinity. 

'' Light influences chemical action, which latter devel- 
ops electricity, and that, magnetism, heat, and motion. 
A coil of wire, attached to a daguerreotype plate, 
becomes electric when the plate is exposed to the light. 
Pieces of cloth, of different coloi'S, sink with difterent 
speed into snow, showing that the light, when absorbed 
by black cloths, changes into heat, and therefore these 
cloths sink more rapidly into the snow. 

" As electricity, moving round an iron bar, develops 
magnetism, so revolving magnets develop electricity, 
and we have magneto-electricity as well as electro- 
magnetism. Since electricity causes light, heat- 
motion, and chemical affinity, magnetism may be con- 
sidered to cause them. Magnets directly cause and 
resist motion; and whenever iron is magnetized or 
demagnetized, heat is developed. 

" Chemism, the power which causes chemical action, 
by means of chemical affinity, causes motion, electri- 
city, heat, and light. All these effects are seen in the 
chemical process of burning ; one of om- strongest 
sources of electricity is in chemical action ; and in the 
Voltaic-pile and Galvanic battery, the amount of elec- 
tricity evolved is in exact proportion to the amount 



I 



1 



hae:,iox[es of tbe uxr'eese. 99 

of cliemical action ; in tlie same way as the heat and 
electricity caused b}" friction are in exact proportion to 
the amount of the friction and to the loss of mechanical 
force. It is believed that the vital forces are also con- 
nected with the physical forces of inanimate nature. 
All the substances found in the animal are also found 
in the mineral kingdom. And light and heat are 
necessary conditions to animation." 



100 



A STELLAE KEY. 



'mt 



' ii iii •■^^=:'' 




lliilwiilll^^ 








THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUl^niEE LAND. 101 



CHAPTEE XII. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUMMEE-LAND. 

Thus far we have cautiously walked in the fact- 
lighted path of inductive science. "We are, neverthe- 
less, in search of that attractive Spiritual Zone — which 
blends, astronomically and mathematically, the finite 
with the infinite — to which tlie human heart and the cul- 
tured mind instinctively aspire. We are intellectually 
searching for that higher Land which, accepting the 
testimony of seers, rolls embosomed in the Stellar Uni- 
verse. In loohino; throuo-h the boundless blue for our 
eternal home, we behold, as by necessity, the holy orbs 
and sun-built constellation of the ethereal realm. 

"Te stars! which are the poetry of heaven, 

If in your bright leaves we would read the fate 
Of men and empires — 'tis to be forgiven ; 
* * * For ye are 

A beauty and a mystery, and create 

In US such love and reverence from afar 
That fortune, fame, power, life, have named themselves a star." 

Chemistry has many living exponents, and they all 
agree that the sixty-four or eighty-two '^ simple ele- 
ments," by entering into different atomic arrangements, 
and by combining in different proportions, originate all 
the known " compounds" and organizations in nature. 

It is according to my perceptions, however, that 
chemists, when better informed, will resign their now 



102 A STELLAK KEY. 

popular tlieory of " Simples." The number and names 
of the '' primates " are increased each succeeding year 
by the discovery of several new elements. An ele- 
ment, in the chemical schools, is understood to be that 
which cannot be further analyzed or changed in its 
nature. Gold, for example, can be vaporized so finely 
as to become invisible ; but when detected, accumulated, 
and assayed, each grain of it is exactly and perfectly 
what it was at first. There is no intrinsic difference 
between the finest grain and the largest mass, and thus 
gold is called an " element." 

But the magnificent simplicities of Nature, like the 
central unities of Truth, w^hen they are detected and ^j 
correctly assayed, wall put an everlasting extinguisher M 
upon all these false " lights " in the temple of chemical 
science. It will be fomid that the solids of the worlds! 
came from ethers and essences. The atmospheres con- n 
tain in solution all the world. (In this work I do nr>t 
use the terms " fluids " and " yapors " in any ordinary 
limited sense.) It is certain to a demonstration that 
essences are the magnetical condition of matter. The 
different electricities exist in the sphere below, among 
the '^ vapors;" as the atmospheres, and the so-called 
gases, exist in the "' fluids " of earth and space. It is 
necessary to understand this, before your judgment can 
take in the conception of a stratified spiritual Zone, 
because the celestial existence is constituted of the 
ultimate atoms of yisible matter. And it is, therefore, 
of the highest moment, scientifically considered, that the 
essence-origin of palpable solid matter be perfectly com- 
prehended. For if it be clearly seen that the earth was 
once impalpable ether or essence, and if the established 



THE COXSTTTUTIOX OF THE SUM^IEE LAXD. 103 

world-foriHiiig laws and processes of space be remem- 
bered, as we have carefully explained tliem in ear- 
lier chapters, then it will be logically easy to under- 
stand the formation and constitution of the Summer 
Land. 

The ethereal condition, or, rather, the essence-origin 
of visible matter, therefore, is the cjuestion first to be 
considered. On this point, then, we must take testi- 
mony accumulated by the world's chemical researches. 
An English writer, fnll of positivism and skepticism, 
jirst asks a question and then answers, thus : — 

'* What is mail ? (and this term equally applies chemi- 
cally to the whole organic world.) Man is a condensation 
of gases and vapors, every one of which are floating 
ronnd us in the atmosphere. Ont of his total weight 
of 15i lbs., we have in the man — oxygen, 111 lbs., and 
he is inhaling it every instant ; hydrogen, 15 lbs., a gas 
we burn ; carbon, a gas, when combined with oxygen ; 
nitrogen, part of the air we breathe ; phosphorus, which 
is all around us in every plant and animal, which we 
eat at every meal ; calcium, liquid in water ; sodium, 
liqnid with chlorine ; and other metals in very small 
quantities, all, susceptible of liquidity. Zvlan is not con- 
scious of it, any more than he is conscious that when he 
is eating roast-beef, he is eating nitrogen, phosphorus, 
calcium, sulphur, potassium, and iron; few even are 
conscious that, in takino^ salt, thev are eatino- chlorine. 
Man is continually giving out these vapors, which are 
in fact a part of himself : he is conscious only of one 
thing, and that is. that if they escape a little too fast, 
he feels cold. The quantity of these vapors is im- 
mense. The runawav neoTo leaves his track distin- 



104 A STELLAR KEY. 

guishable by the blood-hound for 100 miles — we scarcely 
perceive it, but if a dog has lost his master, he knows 
if his master has been in any room he goes into ; sueli 
is the absolutely distinctive difference of the emanations 
from each individual. These emanations are as positively 
material, as the individual himself is material — as mate- 
rial as, if you scent a large room ^vith one drop of otto 
of roses, every particle by wliich you perceive tlie scent 
is as material as the T\'hole drop itself was. Isovr these 
emanations correspond exactly with Baron Eeichen- 
bach's description, in his conclusions of Odyle, p. 210, 
namely : — 

A peculiar force, distinct from all known forces, is 
different from magnetism. 

Bodies possessing it do not assume any particular 
direction from the earth's mas^netism. 

In animals, at least in man, the whole left side is in 
odylic opposition to the right. The force appears co'> 
centrated on poles in the extremities; the hands and 
fingers, in both feet, stronger in the hands than in the 
feet. 

The odylic force is conducted to distances -yet un- 
ascertained by all solid and liquid bodies ; not only 
metals, but glass, resin, silk, water, dry wood, paper, 
cotton cloth, woolen cloth, <fec. 

Bodies may be charged with odyle, or odyle may 
be transferred from one body to another. In stricter 
language, a body in which free odyle is developed can 
excite in another body a similar odylic state. 

This charging, or transference, is effected by con- 
tact. 



THE COXSTITUTIOX OF THE SUMMEP. LAXD. 105 

The charging requires a certain time, and is not 
accomplished under several minutes. 

The odjlic light of amorphous bodies is a kind of 
feeble external and internal glow, somewhat similar to 
phosphorescence. This glow is surrounded bja delicate 
luminous vail, in the form of a fine downy flame. 

Human beings are thus luminous over nearly the 
whole surface, but especially the hands^ over the palm 
of the hand, the points of the fingers, the eyes, certain 
parts of the head, the pit of the stomach, the toes, &q. 

Flaming emanations stream forth from all the points 
of the fingers, of relatively great intensity, and in the 
line of the leno;th of the finwrs. 

All these flames may be moved by currents of air ; 
and where they meet with solid bodies, they bend round 
them, just as ordinary flame does. The odylic flame 
has therefore an obviously material (ponderable ?) char- 
acter. 

In the animal economy, night, sleep, and hunger 
depress and diminish the odylic influence. Taking 
food, daylight, and the active waking state, increase 
and intensify it. In sleep the seat of odylic activity is 
transferred to other parts of the nervous system. 

A photographic picture is the electric efl'ect of light 
— the action of electricity on metals. But man is a 
compound of the very materials used in photography, 
only in solution. You have sodium, a white metal; 
calcium, a white metal ; iodine, chlorine, and parti- 
cularly phosphorus, and you have a continued internal 
spring of elev?tricity. It is curious also that any excess 
or diminution of phosphorus in the brain aff*ects the 
sense and imao:ination. 



106 A STELLAR KEY. 

'' In a work I have before me," says tliis author, '' it 
is stated that the analysis of the brain of man and 
animals gives the following proportions of phosphoi'us : — 

In animals of the lower order 1 per cent. 

In imbeciles (men) l^ *• 

In men of sound intellectual powers 2 to 2t " 

In men where a degree of eccentricity prevailed .... 3 *' 

Complete insanity 4 to 4 J '• 

Phosphorns is a substance in a great measure composed 
of light. I wish you first to reflect on the intimate 
connection of the light with thought, so that the state 
of the intellectual faculties seems to be regulated by it ; 
and next, that these varying quantities are only the 
result of the diiierent power of the absorbents of dif- 
ferent individuals. 

''In Mons..Boinet's work on lodotherapia, we find that 
Mons. Chaton states that the absence of iodine in the 
air, in certain countries, is the cause of the degradation 
of the human species. Further — the researches and 
observations of Messrs. Boussingault, Gauge, Cantu, 
and a number of scientific men, prove that in those 
geographical, geological, and chemical situations where 
iodine is deficient, cretinism or imbecility abounds. 
This points stroiigly to iodine as having properties re- 
lated to intellect — and salt, in which the metal sodium 
is but the vehicle for chlorine, what would the world 
be without it ? The most noticeable facts in the case 
are — the large quantity of phosphorus in every human 
body — If lb. ; the fact that we imbibe phosphorus in 
each bit of animal and vegetable food we eat; that the 
lovrer the animal kingdom is in intellect or instinct, the 



'I 



THE COXSTrmiON OF THE SUIDIEE LAXD. 107 

less phosphorus their bodies contain ; and that the 
odvlic emanations and intellio-ent manifestations are 
generally and most probably always accompanied by 
phosphorns ; and that chlorine, TVJiich we are always 
eating in salt, being a sister element to iodine, is full 
as likely as iodine to have a part in the development of 
intellect." 

The materialism of this testimony does no injury to 
the pm^pose in %dew, namely, to adduce scientific facts 
to establish the essence-origin of matter. Innumerable 
atomic emanations arise and continually ascend from the 
bodies of persons composing the human family; not less 
than 800,000,000 tons per annum ; atoms that float out 
into space in the rivers of ether, and enter into the 
constitution of the Summer Land. This process has 
been long known to seers. But the vrorld's people 
want ^' facts " of the schools for the foundation of their 
faith in the future. " Life, in its proper, generic sense," 
says Grindon, in his volume on the Varieties and Phe- 
nomena of Life, " is the name of the sustaining prin- 
ciple by which every thing out of the Creator subsists, 
whether worlds, metals, minerals, trees, animals, man- 
kind, angels, or devils, together with all thought and 
feeling. Nothing is absolutely lifeless, though many 
things are relatively so ; and it is simply a conventional 
restriction of the term, which makes life signify no more 
than the vital energy of an organized material body. 

'* Has not this inorganic nature sympathies and an- 
tipathies in those mysterious elective affinities of the 
molecules of matter which chemistry investigates ? Has 
it not the powerful attractions of bodies to each other, 
which o^overn the motions of the stars scattered in the 



108 A STELLAPw KFA'. 

immensity of space, and keep them in an admirable 
harmony? Do we not see, and always with a secret 
astonishment, the magnetic needle agitated at the ap- 
proach of a particle of iron, and leaping nnder the lire 
of the Northern Light ? Place any material body what- 
ever by the side of another, do they not immediately 
enter into relations of interchange, of molecular attrac- 
tion, of electricity, of magnetism? In the inorganic 
part of matter, as in the organic, all is acting, all is 
promoting change, all is itself undergoing transforma- 
tion. And thus, though this life of the globe, this 
pliysiology of our planet, is not the life of the tree or 
the bird, is it not also a life? Assuredly it is. "We 
cannot refuse so to call those lively actions and reactions, 
that perpetual play of the forces of matter, of which we 
are every day the witnesses. . . . 

" Thus, that the soul is no ' will-o'-th'-wisp in the 
swamps of the cerebrum,' but an internal man^ a body 
wdthin a body ; ' a life,' as Aretaeus says of the womb, 
' within a life ;' in the material body as God is in the 
universe, everywhere and now^here ; everywhere for the 
enlightened intellect, nowhere for the physical view ; 
no more in the brain than in the toes, but the spiritual 
* double' of the entire fabric. All the organs of the 
material body have soul in them, and serve the soul, 
each one according to its capacity; yet is the soul 
itself independent of them all, because made of another 
substance 

^' Spiritual substances are none the less real because 
out of the reach of chemistry or edgetools, or because 
they are inappreciable by the organs of sense. Indeed 
it is only the grosser expressions of matter which can 



I 



THE COXSTITUTIO^' OF THE SUMMER LAXD. 109 

be SO treated, and which the senses can apprehend. 
Heat and electricity are as truly material as flint and 
granite, yet man can neither cut, Eor weigh, nor measure 
them ; while the most familiar and abundant expression 
of all, the air which we breathe, can neither be seen 
nor felt till put in motion. As for invisibility, which 
to the vulgar is proof of non-existence, no warning is so 
incessantly addressed to us, fi'om every department of 
creation, as not to commit the mistake of disbelieving, 
simply because we cannot see. Each class of substances 
is real in relation to the world it belongs to ; material ' 
substances in the material world ; spiritual substances 
in the spiritual world ; and each kind has to be judged 
of according to its place of abode."' 

The testimony of science is stronger and stronger in 
favor of the essence-origin of all forms and conditions of ' 
matter; and how much more satisfactory to the ex- 
ternalist, to the sensuous thinker, that this testimony 
proceeds from recognized literary and scientific author- 
ity. The venerable pliilosopher, Dr. Ashburner, of 
England, gives most important evidence that matter can 
be *' dissolved '^ and ** attenuated*' heyond the influence 
of ^* attraction.*' The unparticled atomic constitution 
of the Summer Land, therefore, is an acknowledged 
possibility. That philosopher and scientist says: *'It 
is idle to discuss the various characteristics of the forms 
of the objects surrounding us. Those who have the 
necessary iaculties are cpiite aware that all the objects 
in nature are resolvable into certain forms known as 
solid, licpjid, and gaseous or aeriform. "We have, on a 
previous occasion, illustrated a portion of oui* present 
subject by selecting the lightest substance known as 



\\ 



110 A STELLAR KEY. 

material, hydrogen gas, in order to express our meaning 
of infinitely attenuated matter, when a repulsive force 
operates to keej) its particles asunder so as to prevent 
its combining with any other form of matter. The 
force of rej)ulsion, then, obliges hydrogen to remain in 
a state of negative polarity ; for unless its particles can 
be approximated, it cannot alter its state or its con- 
ditions. IsoY can any matter without the intervention 
of force, for all matter is known to be inert or passive. 
If man be operating on matter, in any course of experi- 
ments, it would be idle to say that he was not exerting 
his will to fashion those experiments. It has been 
shewn that the will of man is a force, attractive or re- 
pulsive, according to circumstances. [See his Essays 
in the fourth volume of the Zoist.] Man can cause 
matter to be dissolved. It can be dissolved as a salt in 
water, which is itself a form of matter, capable of ex- 
pansion and attenuation in the form of vapor or gas. 
But in order to effect this change in water, the in- 
troduction of a repulsive force is necessaiy. Under 
all circumstances, matter is subject to force. Cannot 
force dissolve matter ? What do we mean by electro- 
metallurgy? Does not, in this case, electricity dissolve 
metal ? In the formation of vapor in the atmosphere, 
does not force dissolve water? Is not all attenuation 
of matter more or less a solution in force ? 

" This idea, expanded, takes us on to that of infinite 
space. We can suppose all matter to be so far atten- 
ated as to form iiniversal ether j to be dissolved by force 
in infinite space ; resolved into such minute particles, 
as to be no longer subject to attraction." 

In this place it is of the first importance to read a 



THE CONSTITUTIOX OF THE SOIMER -LXNB. Ill 

communication that appeared in tiie London (England) 
Sjnritual Magazine concerning the essences and etlitrs 
and emanations ^hich science has discovered as be- 
longing to and proceeding from physical bodies. The 
correspondent, after alluding appreciatively to the letters 
of ]\li\ Euskin, savs : — 

'' It is to one of his physical illustrations that we wish 
to draw our reader's attention. It is one of the demon- 
strations of spiritual clairvoyance that each of us is 
surrounded by a spiritual sphere or emanation ; which 
is sometimes even seen in colors, or in light, and is 
more often absolutely felt, even through our dulled and 
deadened sensibilities. iSothing, indeed, is more likely 
to be true, or can be more profusely ilhistrated by our 
ex|3erience, than the impression by thoughts or by pre- 
monitions on meeting persons of our acquaintance, or 
in many of the circumstances of our daily hves, and 
intercom^se with one another; but, like most that is 
spiritual, and appertaining to the soul and its faculties, 
it is received with ridicule or neglect. We look forward, 
however, to a future day when it will be a key-stone in 
the arch of spiritual knowledge. 

'^ The discovery of the spectrum analysis, which now 
plays so important a part in physical science, and is 
being prosecuted in so many quarters of physics, is now 
helping us, by demonstrating similar spheres and ema- 
nations in natural substances. This also has long ago 
been described and insisted on by Spiritualists, but 
their testimony has been disregarded. Avery interest- 
ing description is given of the recent discoveries or 
rather re-discoveries on the physical plane, made through 
a friend of ATr. Euskin, and which he thus narrates : — 



112 A STELLAE KEY. 

" 'Yesterday afternoon I called on Mr. H. C. Sorby, 
to see some of the results of an inquiry he has been 
follovring all last year, into the nature of the coloring 
matter of leaves and flowers. You most probably have 
heard (at all events, may with little trouble hear) of the 
marvelous power which chemical analysis has received 
in recent discoveries respecting the laws of light. My 
friend showed me the rainbow of the rose, and the rain- 
bow of the violet, and the rainbow of the hyacinth, and 
the rainbow of forest leaves being born, and the rain- 
bow of forest leaves dying. And, last, he showed me 
the rainbow of blood. It was but the three-hundredth 
part of a grain, dissolved in a drop of water; and it 
cast its measured bars, forever recognizable now to 
human sight, on the chord of the seven colors. And no 
drop of that red rain can now be shed, so small as that |j 
the stain of it cannot be known, and the voice of it * 
heard out of the ground.' 

" Shall there be," he inquires, " a rainbow or sphere 
around the rose, or around a drop of blood, and no 
emanation from the soul, with all its God-given powers, 
and its undying loves, and heavenward aspirations ? 
The natural is but the analogue of the spiritual; and 
poetry is true^ though science, till now, has failed to 
see it." 

The reader will, possibly, find that the deepest truths 
are vailed in obscurity. Many of our plainest principles 
form a kind of rnysteriuin magiixLm — immensely in- 
comprehensible — arising in part, perhaps wholly, from 
the inadequacy of language to convey clear pictures 
and im.ages of Ideas to the mind. Indeed, it must for- 
ever remain difficult to impart to the mind of another a 
perfectly crystalline conception and knowledge of things 
spiritual. The faithful, truthful logical thinker knows 



T£[E COXSTITniON OF THE Sril^^yiEE LAXD. 113 

that the visible world is but a vailj a roaterial garment, 
transparent to the spirit's ejes, hiding from physical 
vision the formative powers which are eternal. The 
material constitution and substantialness of the Summer 
Land become a " matter of fact " to that mind which 
is structurally endowed and unfolded by culture to dis- 
cern the harmonious essences that perpetually build up *^ 
the temple of the universe, and which can 

'"look through natural forms, 

And/eeZ the throbbing arteries of Law 
In every pulse of Xature and of !Man.'' 

Thus far, in this section of our subject, T have led the 
reader throuo;h the fields of " scientific facts." And to 
this method, for a time longer, I am constrained to 
adhere ; because the materialized millions of America 
demand, even from me, the plain evidences of intellectual 
and passionless science. 

Before us now, therefore, is the labor of establishing 
in your mind two grand truths : namely, first, that the 
so-called ''solid" matter of the universe is continually 
risiiig to its ultimate condition (which is the reproduc- 
tion of its primitive condition), but in a far higher circle 
of refinement, called " essences;" and, second, that from 
the human organization, especially, these "essences" 
are continually emanating and sweeping off into space, 
being the highest emanations of refined matter from any 
globe, because the human body is the highest organism, 
and is pre-eminently one of " God's mills " for prepar- 
ing atoms to enter into the formation of the velvety 
soils in the successive Summer Lands of immensity. 

The first time I clairvoyantly saw the " second 



114 A STELLAR KEY. 

sphere " — i. e, the nearest Summer Land, lining this part 
of the stellar universe — it seemed only as a small sec- 
tion of a continuous white zone among the stars. The 
little diagram gives a hint of its first appearance in 
space. 




ji 



Let the reader imagin e my amazement and delight, suc- 
ceeded by an unutterable awe^ arising from the unpre- 
paredness of my intellect for such a disclosure. Although 
I have since seen a million times more vast and wonder- : i 
ful things, concerning the spiritual and celestial uni-lj 
verses, yet the more recalling of that first impression 
and perception, which occurred almost a quarter of a 
century ago, thrills my mind through and through. 
The universe is ablaze every moment with these myriad- 
gated spheres of beauty and glory. The infinite-master 
Powers of the Univercoelum, and the plastic Essences 
and animated Ethers of ihe highest regions of Matter, 
and the grand white Light of the innermost empyrean, 
are all beautifully and philosophically disclosed to that 
mind w^hich is intelligently and worthily open to the | 
perception and comprehension of God's choicest truths. 
The vast panorama of the Universe, in its epical 
grandeur and lyrical harmonies, should be pictured 
as true and pure as frost-flow^ers upon your reason. 
The intellect of that man who beholds these lofty 
truths is supremely blest. Henceforth he should hold 
his — 



THE COXSTITUTION OF THE SUMMER LAND. 115 

*' — gift in reverence. And he should mold his life 
In beauty's perfect fashion, holding on 
Columbus-like through floods of thought unknown, 
Till tropic archipelagoes of song, 
Till virgin continents of stately verso, 
And undiscovered worlds of harmony 
Hepay the bold adventure." 

Such a pliilosoplier, standing armed to the teeth with 
the facts of positive science, would be constrained to 
testify that when " we look on a beautiful landscape, we 
see mountains, trees, rivers, real and substantial as 
regards the material universe ; nevertheless, only as 
images, forms originally existing, in a world which we 
do 7iot see, and from which they are derived . . forms 
which are as real as the material — yea, infinitely more 
so, since the material is local and temporary, whereas 
the spiritual is unlimited and imperishable. IS'othing 
exists except by reason of the spiritual world ; whatever 
pertains to the material is purely and simply effect." 

According to my most careful examinations of the 
physical structure of the Summer Land, the fertile 
soils, and the lovely groves and vines and flowers which 
infinitely diversify the landscape, are constituted of 
jMrticles that were once in human hodies ! But the 
world-rearing principles, by which those particles were 
attracted from the human emanations of all the inhab- 
ited planets in the solar belt called the Milky Way, are 
from the spiritual universe. These human emanations, 
like the lights and flames of crystals and magnets, flow 
forth unceasingly, in millions of tons daily, into the 
soils of the celestial lands. 

Perhaps it may fortify your judgment to read Reich- 
enbach's testimony. His experiments with " sensitives," 



116 A STELLAH KKY. 

as he terms the neurological raediiims of Germany, 
demonstrate that '^ every flower, fruit, and tree emits 
into nature the best portion of its being — its essence." 
But who has seen the aromal essence of a flower ? 
"Who has beheld the essential form thus given off into 
the universe i^ 

According to the Teutonic philosopher, the odic light 
is more beautiful from the horseshoe magnet, set up- 
right, with both poles pointing toward the heavens. 
" I have," he writes in one of his letters, " a nine- 
leaved horseshoe magnet, with a power of raising a 
hundred pounds; and all sensitive persons can see a 
fine light streaming out of each pole — that is, two lights 
side by side, which do not attract, nor influence, nor 
extinguish each otlier — as do the magnetic forces of 
opposing poles — but steadily stream up high, side by 
side, and form a light-column, as large as a man, and 
composed of innumerable light-sj^arkles in constant mo- 
tion — the column being described as impressively beau- 
tiful by all who have seen it. It rises perpendicularly to 
the ceiling, and there casts a light upon a space about 
twelve feet in diameter. If the magnet is kept long in 
this position before the sensitive person, the whole ceil- 
ing becomes gradually visible. Such a magnet upon a 
table throws a light upon it, so that every thing on its| j 
surface can be seen for a yard in each direction from the 
magnet. A hand interposed between the flame and the 
table casts a perceptible shadow. If you hold a piece 
of board, a pane of window-glass, a plate of tin, or any 

* These emanations have been seen by many clairvoyants. For the 
author's perception of them, read a chapter in '' The Seer " (Harmonia, 
vol. IIL) ; also see a chapter in " The Magic Staff." 



THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SUISIMER LAND. 117 

similar body liorizontally into the flame, the latter will 
bend under it and rise up at the sides, just as the flame 
of a fire would under the same circumstances. If a 
draft of air blow upon the magnet, or if it be moved, 
the flame bends to one side, as the flame of a candle 
would. The light can be collected in a focus by a 
burning-glass, like the rays of ordinary light. The 
phenomenon is thus shown to be a material one, and 
has many qualities in common with ordinary flame. If 
two of these odic flames be made to cross each other, 
there is no perceptible attraction or repulsion, but they 
mutually pierce each other, and pursue their respective 
courses undisturbed. If one be stronger than the other 
— if its sparkles of light have a stronger headway — it 
divides the weaker flame, which splits, passes over the 
sides of the stronger one, and meets on the other side, 
just as it does if a stick be held in it. And as sensitive 
persons saw the crystals penetrated by a fine glow, so 
also they see the steel magnet translucent with a 
white light ; and electro-magnets have the same 
appearance." 

That all the universe of matter is pervaded by an 
invisible essence, is to be the grandest discovery of 
chemical science. Cornelius Agrippa, in his great 
works on Occult Philosophy, recognized the existence 
of this sympathetic and antipathetic essence between 
and throughout all things. This essence is not a mere 
motion of matter in a high state of attenuation ; it is, 
in fact, a substantial form of matter itself; and we find 
that the Summer Land derived its constitution from the 
atoms composing this inter-stellar and inter-planetary 
etherealized ocean of materials. 



118 A STELLAR KKY. 

Now the laws that govern nature go on, as I have 
many times urged, with a steady and unchangeable 
progression. They are not at any time retarded or 
accelerated. IS'othing can prevent the natural results 
of these laws. They are established by one great 
positive power and mind; and equaled and balanced 
by a negative or ultimate equilibrium. Hence their 
continued and united forces, by the influence of which 
all things are actuated, governed, and developed, 
pass on in a steady progression. Every particle of 
matter possesses the same power which governs the 
whole of the universe, and in each particle you see a 
representation and evidence of those divine laws. 
Thus, in the stone you may see the properties of the 
soil; in the soil, the properties of the plant; in the 
plant, the properties of an animal ; in the animal you 
see man — and in Man you cannot see^ but you can feel 
the immortal principle. 

The testimony of years ago is as fresh and momentous 
now as then. I am equally desirous of enforcing that 
great sjpiritual and eternal truth which it is necessary 
for man to know and appreciate before he can compre- 
hend the idea of the Summer Land ; and that is, that all 
manifest substances^ forms ^ compositions — indeed^ that 
ALL THiN-GS VISIBLE are expressions of an interior 'produc- 
tive cause^ lohich is the spiritual essence* that the Mineral 
Kingdom is an expression of Motion^ the Vegetable an 
expression of Life^ the Animal an expression of Sensa- 
tion^ and that Man is an expression of Intelligence j that 
the planets in our solar system are a perfect expression 
of the Sun, from which they sprang ; that the various 
combined bodies and planetary systems in the Universe 



THE COXSTTTUTION OF THE SU^^niKR LAXD. 119 

are a perfect expression of the Great Sun of ihe Univer- 
coelnm ; that the Great Sun is the perfect expression of 
the Spieiiual Sun within it; and that the Spiritual 
Sun is a perfect expression of the Divine Mind, Love, 
or Essence. The Spiritual Sun is thus the Center and 
Cause of all material things. It is a diverging or radi- 
ating Sphere or Atmosphere of the Great Eternal Cause. 
It is an aroma — a garment and a perfect radiation of 
the more interior Essence, the Divine, Creative Soul. 

Some conception of the Stellar Universe (^. e,^ the 
universe of suns and planets) may be obtained from a 
synoptical sketch of astronomic discoveries. Prof. 
Meigs reports M. Arago's lecture to this effect : — We 
count in the Northern Hemisphere 4,400 stars visible 
to the naked eye. And for the purpose of counting we 
proceed in this way : through a narrow slit, corre- 
sponding with the meridian of the place of observation, 
we look attentively and note the stars gradually as 
they appear. The following approximate calculation 
will give an inferior limit to the number of stars visible 
with the powerful instruments of which we have the 
use. 

Observation has demonstrated that the number of 
the stars of the second magnitude is triple that of 
those of the first magnitude ; that those of the third 
magnitude is triple that of those of the second magni- 
tude. In a word, that in general to obtain the number 
of stars of any given magnitude, we rnust multiply by 
three the number of stars of a preceding magnitude. 

Let us, then, admit this law to the 14th magnitude — 
to stars which the most powerful instruments render 
visible ; as the number of stars of the first magnitude is 



120 A STELLAK KEY. 

eighteen^ tlien the number of stars visible by the naked 
eye and with telescopes as far as the l-ith magnitude 
will be about twerdy-nine millions ^ and if to these 
twenty-nine millions we add those of the 13th and 14th 
magnitudes, (fee, we obtain the number oi forty -three 
riiillions of stars, 

Herschel, in that part of the heavens occupied by the 
knee of Orion, in a band of fifteen degrees long by two 
degrees wide, has distinctly counted fifty thousand 
stars. And as the band is only the three hundred and 
seventy-sixth part of the celestial vault, the entire sur- 
face of the heavens must contain 98,755,000 visible with 
the telescope. And as we must remark, in a great 
many regions of the heavens the stars are much closer 
together, and that with our telescopes we only reach the 
least distant celestial spaces and the stars least remote, 
we must recognize the fact that the first estimate of 
their numbers is infinitely far from the truth ; and that, 
admitting one visible star in each square minute, we 
must liave a number of distinct stars a;mounting to one 
hundred and forty-eight millions five hundred and 
seven thousand two hundred stars, and yet remain 
much below the truth. There are then one hundred 
and forty-eight millions of stars, and our sun is one of 
them only. The mass of our earth is but the three 
hundred and fifty -five millionth part of that one sun ; 
and we are but an atom in relation to our earth." The 
place we occupy is then infinitely small, and we 7nore 
than infinitely little. 

Comparative Inte:^sities of the Lioht of Stars of 
DIFFERENT Magnitddes. — There is in science a great 
and much to be regretted blank ; photometry, or the 



THE COXSTITTJTION OF THE SUM3IER LAND. 121 

art of measuring the varioTis intensities of light, is still 
in its infancy ; we have hardly taken the first step. 

The division of the stars by the order of their magni- 
tude was made by the astronomers of antiqnity in an 
arbitrary manner and without any pretension to exact- 
ness, and this vagueness is continued in our modern 
charts. Those which are accredited now present a 
total table of eighteen stars of the first magnitude for 
the two hemispheres. Why eighteen, and not nineteen 
or twenty ? 

The stars of the first mao-nitude are far from havmo; 
all the same intensity. The si?;th order composed 
among the ancients the last visible to the naked eye ; 
and in our day tliose of the seventh magnitude consti- 
tute the demarcation between the stars visible to the 
naked eye and the telescopic stars. 

We may affirm that there are certainly stars in the 
firmament whose distance from the earth is 34:4: and 
even 900 times greater than that of the stars visible to 
the naked eye. See what conclusion this leads us to ! 
It is admitted that light, with the velocity of 77,000 
leagues a second, takes three years to reach us from the 
nearest star. And there are stars three hundred and 
forty-four and even nine hundred times more remote. 
Then there are stars whose light does not reach us until 
after two thousand seven hundred years — an infinity in 
distance as it is in numbers. 

Stars of Variable Imtensity of Light. — Eratosthe- 
nes, in the year 275 before Christ, says of the stars in 
the constellation of the Scorpion : " They are preceded by 
the most beautiful of all the northern gems." At this 
time this is less brilliant than the southern, and, above 

6 



122 A STELLAR KEY. 

all, than Arcturns. Then there have been changes 
since the time of Eratosthenes. 

When Newton pronounced the sublime words, uni- 
versal aUraciion^ there was an outcry at its novelty ; it 
was a neologism ; it had occult qualities, (fee. Xow the 
words fill the w^orld, of which they are its greatest 
reality. 

Diameters of the Stars. — Great diversity of opinion 
exists on this point. If we should take for their discs 
such as they appear to the naked eye, certain stars 
would be nine thousand millions of leagues in diameter 
— equal to twenty-seven thousand times greater diame- 
ter than the sun — and the most moderate calculations 
would be one thousand seven hundred millions. Iler- 
schel's last calculation was that Ai^cticrus had a diame- 
ter of nearly four millions of leagues (twelve millions of 
miles). If the apparent diameter of two seconds and a 
half, assigned by Herschel to the Goat^ was real, the 
mass of that star must be more than fourteen million 
times greater than that of our sun. But there is no 
certainty in this, nor any thing to question that our sun 
is a star. 

The sublime idea that the Creator hath made all 
with number, weight, and measure, is followed by 
Plato, who called it the geometry of the heavens. 
Halley, the friend of Newton, believed that all the 
stars were of the same magnitude — that of our sun — 
and that difference of distance only caused the apparent 
difference of size. 

Number of Stars.— The number visible by means of 
a telescope of twenty feet focal distance may be more 
than five hundred millions. 



THE C0X5TITUTI0X OF THE BU:^1MES L.4:S^D. 123 

Distance of the Staes of some J^Tebul^. — "We have 
supposed that the nebute of which we form part is not 
the largest of the three thousand nebulse known to 
astronomers. Is it not very natural ? Is it not as a 
million to one that it is so ? When, therefore, on this 
hypothesis, and the facts stated by Herschel, that there 
are, at a medium, in the direction of our nebulse, five 
hundred stars, that many nebulae subtend an angle of 
ten minutes, and the very natural hypothesis that the 
distance between two consecutive stars among the five 
hundred is the distance of the earth from the nearest 
star, we must arrive at the conclusion that there are 
planets so distant from us that light, moving at the 
velocity of more than seventy-seven thousand leagues 
in a second of time, would take more than a million of 
years to reach us ! These few words are enough to 
prove, as it seems to me, that we must admit our 
imaginations overwhelmed at the infinite number and 
distances in question. 

The existence and essential constitution of the 
Summer Land must cease to excite skepticism in that 
intellect which contemplates the glory, the stupendous 
immensity, and the musical harmony of the stellar 
system. It is a grand demonstration and affirmation 
of science that light travels about 213,000 miles in a 
second ! From the moon it takes five quarters of a 
second to come to us ; fi:*om the sun, eight minutes ; 
from Uranus, more than five hours; from the nearest 
fixed stars, three years ; from a star of the seventh 
magnitude, 180 years ; from one of the twelfth magni- 
tude, 4,000 years ; and from those yet more distant orbs, 
seen only through the best telescopes — Lord Eosse's, for 



124 A STELLAE KEY. 

instance — the light requires many tens of thousands of 
years to reach our planet. 

Consequently, when we look at any of these bodies 
we do not see it as it is at present, hut as it was at some 
former time more or less remote. We see the moon as 
it was some five quarters of a second ago ; Jupiter, as it 
was fifty-two minutes ago ; the nearest of the fixed stars, 
as it was three years ago ; one of the twelfth magnitude, 
as it was 4,000 years ago; and so on. 

iSTew stars may have existed for thousands of years, 
comparatively near the confines of our solar system, 
which have not yet become visible to us ; and others 
which still shine in our firmament may have passed out 
of existence before the time fixed for Xoah's flood. 

These facts and conclusions are acknowledged and 
acted upon by astronomers. They are true, independ- 
ently of any theory of optics ; since it matters not 
whether light is a body that actually travels, or a mere 
electrical phenomenon or a " motion " of force, as some 
would have it. It is sufiicient to know that it takes a 
complete second before a luminous body, 213,000 miles 
distant, becomes visible to us, and a proportionably 
longer interval in case of bodies farther on. 

It is strange, however, that no one has hitherto 
thought of reversing this problem ; for it follows as a 
matter of course from what has been said already, that 
an observer in the moon, looking toward the earth, 
does not see it as it is at the moment of observation, but 
as it was five quarters of a second before. An observer 
from the sun sees it as it was eight minutes before. 
From Uranus, the time between the reality and the per- 
ception by the eye is more than two hours. From the 



THE COXSTTTUTION OF THE SIJM:MEE LAND. 125 

nearest fixed stars, the interval is three years. '^ An in- 
habitant of a star of the twelfth magnitude, if we 
imagine him with unlimited power of vision, contem- 
plating the earth, sees it as it was 4,000 years ago ; 
when Memphis was fomided, and patriarch Abraham 
wandered upon its surface. Possibly, in some star still 
farther removed from us, an observer, equally gifted, 
would at this very moment have obtained a view of 
the earth 6,000 years ago, the creation of mankind, and 
further back to the primeval chaos ; and so on to the 
remotest bounds of the habitable universe." 

Tlie following cut illustrates the appearance of the 
Summer Land in relation to the southern branch: of 
the Milkv Way :— 




Thus astronomical science verges on the spiritual 
universe — yea, almost walks into ''the house not made 
with hands '' — whenever it goes abroad through the 
upper spheres searching for truth. Heasoning with the 
senses, to the unknown from what is visible, science is 
compelled substantially to say : " That the planets are 
i]]habited by living animals, we have as positive evidence 
as we have that quadrupeds or even insects inhabit the 
yet unexplored islands of this earth ; but whether they 
are inhabited by men or similar immortal beings is at 
present beyond the reach of human research. It is 



126 A STELLAR KEY. 

ascertained that tliese orbs, like our own, roll in regu- 
lated periods round the sun ; that they have nights and 
days, successions of seasons ; that they are provided with 
atmosphere supporting clouds and agitated by winds, 
and that thus, also, their climates and seasons are mo- 
dified by evaporation, and that showers refresh their 
surfaces. 

'' For we know that wlierever the existence of 
clouds is made manifest, there water must exist ; there 
evaporation must go on ; there electricity, with its 
train of phenomena, must reign ; there rains must fall ; 
there hail and snow descend. 

" Notwithstanding the dense atmosphere and thick 
clouds with which Venus and Mercury are constantly 
enveloped, the telescope has exhibited to us great 
irregularities on their surfaces, and thus proved the ex- 
istence of mountains and valleys. But it is upon the 
planet Mars, which approaches nearest to the earth, 
that the greatest advances have been made in this de- 
partment of inquiry. Under favorable circumxstances 
its disc is seen to be mapped out by varied outline, some 
portions being less reflective than land. 

" Baer and Maedler, two Prussian astronomers, have 
devoted many years' labor to the examination of Mars; 
and the result has put us in possession of a map of the 
geography of that planet almost as exact and well-de- 
fined as that which we possess of our own. In fact, the 
geographical outlines of land and water have been made 
apparent upon it. But a still more extraordinary fact 
in relation to this planet remains to be considered. 
Among the shaded markings which have been noted by 
the telescope upon its disc^ a remarkable region of 



•l^HE CON-STITDTION OF THE SUMMER LA:N-D. 127 

brilliant white light, standing out in boldest relief, has 
been observed surrounding the visible pole. This 
high! J illuminated spot is to be seen most plainly when 
it emerges from the long night of the winter season ; 
but when it has passed slowly beneath the heat of the 
solar beams it is found to have gradually contracted its 
dimensions ; and at last, before it has plunged into light 
on the opposite side, to have entirely disappeared. But 
the opposite pole, then coming into similar relations, is 
found to be furnished with a like luminous spot, which 
in its turn dissolves as it becomes heated by the summer 
sun. 

" ls"ow these facts prove to us incontestably, that the 
very geographical regions of Mars are fac-similes of our 
own. In its long polar winters, the snows accumulate 
in the desolation of its high northern and southern lati- 
tudes, until they become visible to us in consequence of 
their reflective properties ; and these are slowly melted 
as the sun's rays gather power in the advancing season, 
xintil they cease to be appreciable to terrestrial eyes." 

And yet over all, and through all, as much in the un- 
numbered littlenesses of the microscopic seas as in the 
boundlessness of the telescopic immensities, is the sweet 
consciousness of our never-ending life — the enshrined 
glory of our immortality. How impressively the poet 
Dana has set this feeling to the music of utterances : — 

" listen, man ! 
A voice within us speaks that startling word, 
' Man I thou shalt never die !' Celestial voices 
Hymn it unto our souls ; according harps 
By angel fingers touched, when the mild stars 
Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality. 



128 A STELLAK KEY. 

Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain, 

The tall dark mountains and the deep-toned seas, 

Join in this solemn universal song. 

listen, ye, our spirits I drink it in 

Erom all this air I ^Tis in the gentle moonlight ; 

'Tis floating midst Day's setting glories ; Night, 

"Wrapt in her sable robe, with silent step. 

Comes to our bed, and breathes it in our ears. 

Night and the Dawn, bright Day and thoughtful Eve : 

All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse. 

As one vast mystic instrument, are touched 

Ey an unseen living hand, and conscious chords . 

Quiver witli joy in this great jubilee. 

The dying hear it, and as sounds of earth 

Grow dull and distant, vrake their passing souls 

To mingle in this heavenly harmony." , 

My present perceptions and understanding of the 
atom-essence constitution of tbe Snmmer Land, and of 
humanity's delicate spiritual relationships thereto, revive 
beautiful memories of impressions imparted years ago. 
And while observing the powerful movements of ail 
things contained in the terrestrial and celestial spheres, 
there cannot but be a conception of Divine AYisclom 
legitimately accompanying the former conclusion. The 
innumerable centers of the stellar system; the many 
suns, with their accompanying orbs, planets, and satel- 
lites ; the perfect precision of the general movements 
of all these bodies : their reo-ular and connected adiust- 
ment and unity ; the distributive harmony and equili- 
brium of forces and motions which they constantly dis- 
play — are all manifestations of grandeur, beauty, and 
order unspeakable. The regular inclination of orbits 
and axes, and the definite distances of globes from each 
other ; their constant sameness of motion and the uni- 



THE co:s"STiTimo:s^ of the summer laxd. 129 

form direction wliicli all take ; the apparent sympathy 
and reciprocation of the spheres and atmospheres of the 
innumerable and apparently independent bodies ; the 
united and constant action which each of these manifests 
— all conspire to force npon the mind the irresistible 
impression that the great and nnited movements of the 
Universe are all being performed according to a most 
inconceivably perfect adjustment of mathematical and 
mechanical laws, and that all things are guided, in the 
very motions of their inherent life and activity, by the 
essence of Omnipotent Wisdom ! Their formation 
and procreation ; their particles and constituent parts 
manifest, in their order and arrangement, the perfection 
of pure Yrisdom and Intelligence — while their numerical 
extent, and diverse modes of development, infinitely 
transcend the highest powers of human calculation and 
demonstration. ISo process of analogical reasoning or 
of mathematical calculation has reached that point of 
perfection by which may be demonstrated and calcu- 
lated the exact distances at which these spheres revolve, 
the immensity of space which they occupy, and the 
harmony of the whole ! 

All things are divine, both in the material and spirit- 
ual Universe ; and all become celestial. So every 
created spirit is invited by the progressive law of the 
Father to its home ; and when it enters, and becomes 
sensible of the loveliness and purity thereof, it glorifies 
the Father, not in prayer, but by thoucjld and deed for- 
ever and ever. Each one, then, is an undying child of 
the Eternal One, who is the Father of all ; and no one 
is so low but that it is the highest of some still lower, 
and no one is so hi2:h but that it is the lowest of some 

6* 



130 A STELLAR KEY. 

yet undeveloped. One spirit cannot say unto another, 
" I need tliee not ;" for each one is the sustainer of 
another, and the mutual dependence constitutes the 
harmony and wisdom of all things. 



THE LOCATIOK OF THE SUMMEB LAND, 131 



CHAPTEK XIII. 

THE LOCATION OF THE SIJMZ^IER LAND. 

Under this head a world of sublime realities press 
for immediate expression. For twenty years the clair- 
voyant perception and interior contemplation of the 
objective existence of the celestial world have been a 
som'ce of unutterable joy. But I am admonished now, 
as I have been from the beginning of this Key, to sup- 
ply, as far as possible, the testimony of different think- 
ers, seers, and speculators ; so that, in the succeeding 
chapters of Part II. of this work, some clear and defi- 
nite information may be both sought and imparted. 
The author's views, many of them, have already been 
published, but not with that scientific preciseness which 
may hereafter be demanded by close reasoners and the 
public generally. Now to the testimony. 

In this place, and first of all, we introduce the 
evidence of a little boy, who, on his dying bed, and 
with his last breath, beheld and briefly described the 
Summer Land : The little child was dying. His 
weary limbs were racked with pain no more. The 
flush was fading from his tliin cheeks, and the fever 
that for many days had been drying up his blood, was 
now cooling rapidly under the touch of the icy hand 
that was upon him. 

There were sounds of bitter but suppressed grief in 
that dim chamber, for the dying little one was very 



132 



A STELLAR KEY. 










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o O 
O - 

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o - 

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£ Sb 



5 \. 



THE LOCATION OF THE SmniER LAXD. 133 

dear to many hearts. They kne^v that he was depart- 
ing, and the thought was hard to bear ; but they tried 
to command their feelings, that they might not distm^b 
the last moments of their darling. 

The father and mother, and the kind physician, stood 
beside dear Eddy's bed, and watched his heavy breath- 
ing. He had been silent for some time, and appeared 
to sleep. They thought it might be thns that he would 
pass away, but suddenly his mild blue eyes opened wide 
and clear, and a beautiful smile broke over his features. 
He looked upward and forward at first, and then, turn- 
ing his eyes upon his mother's face, said, in a sweet 
voice : 

'* Mother, what is the name of that beautiful country 
that I see away beyond the mountains — the Idgli moun- 
tains r 

'^I can see nothing, my child," said the mother; 
'^ there are no mountains in sight of our hom.e." 

" Look there^ dear mother," said the child, pointing 
upward ; '^ yonder are the mountains. Can you not 
see them nov:) f " he asked, in tones of the greatest 
astonishment, as his mother shook her head. 

'' They are so near me now — so large and high, and 
behind them the country looks so beautiful, and tlie 
people are so happy— ?^A^r^ are no sick children there. 
Papa, can you not see behind the mountains ? Tell me 
the name of that land I" 

The parents glanced at each other, and with united 
voice, replied : 

"The Land you see is heaven, is it not, my child ?" 

'' Yes, it is heaven. I thought that must be its name. 
Oh, let me go— but how sliall I cross those mountains ? 



134 A STELLAR KEY. 

Father, will you not carry me, for they call me from the 
other side, and I must go." 

There was not a dry ej^e in that chamber, and upon 
every heart fell a solemn awe, as if the curtain which 
concealed its mysteries was about to be withdrawn. 

"My son," said the father, " will you stay with us a 
little while longer? You shall cross the mountains 
soon, but in stronger arms than mine. Wait, stay with 
your mother a little longer ; see how she weeps at the 
thought of losing you !" 

" Oh, mother ! oh, father ! do not cry, but come with 
me, and cross the mountains — oh, come !" and thus he 
entreated, with a strength and earnestness vfhich 
astonished all. 

The chamber was filled with wondering and awe- 
stricken friends. At length he turned to his mother, 
with a face beaming with rapturous delight, and, 
stretching out his little arms to her for one last 
embrace, he cried: " Good-by, mother, I am going; 
but don't you be afraid — tJie strong man has come to 
carry me over the Tnountains P^ 

This impressive testimony is based upon the fre- 
quently demonstrated fact that the spiritual existence is 
revealed, with all its higher and most beautiful forms 
of beauty, to the refined and exalted sensibilities of old 
and young at the solemn moment of death. This 
proves also, that the divine law of growth and of spirit- 
perception is as operative in the least as in the greatest 
mi.nds. Mind has been called '' immaterial ;" but it is 7 
a^ much material as any thing else. All things are really 
the same thing. Matter and soul, though said to be 
so diflerent, actually consist of the same principle, 



THE LOCATION OF THE SUMMER LAND. 135 

though in different degrees of development. Soul is a 
more attenuated form of matter; this accounts for the 
imp^rceptibility of the soul by the physical eye. The 
eye can only discern things in the same sphere with 
itself, and those below. Hence the physical eye can 
only see physical things ; while the spiritual eye 
can behold both spiritual and physical things. The 
physical eye is imperfect — the spiritual, perfect. 
The S]3iritual body is composed of matter which is 
refined and sublimated by the law of spiritual attrac- 
tion. 

In his reasonable and admirable volume — the 
'' Arcana of I^Tature " — Hudson Tuttle affirms, with 
the force and assurance of an independent seer, that the 
realm of spirit-existence is as real, as tangible, and as 
consistent with human nature and natural laws, as is 
the globe on which we at present reside. " The second 
sphere," he affirms, "is a daguerreotype of earth. The 
refined matter which ascends is prone to assume the 
forms from which it was liberated on earth. The 
scenery is identical, but more beautiful and ethereal. 
Trees, fruits and flowers, are not individualized ; that 
is, their emanations do not ascend to the spheres in an 
identified form, but their particles are more prone to 
assume such forms than any other. Thus the particles 
which exist in any particular flower in the spirit-world, 
have never existed in that plane before, but have 
ascended from a countless number of the same kind. 
The description of the splendid scenery we reserve for 
a future chapter. One thing only remains for us to 
elucidate. We speak of dwellings — of artificial things 
— as existing in the spirit- world. Are they created by 



]36 A STELLAH KEY. 

our simply desiring them ? So, many spirits have 
falsely taught. It is true, our desires create them ; but 
we employ means, just as man does, to accomplish our 
wishes. We are not miniature gods, capable of creating 
a palace by a wish. The marvelous powers of Aladdin's 
lamp are denied us. This is true of the lowest and the 
highest spirits, aiid in this respect none are superior to 
man.'^ 

There are, in the testimony of seers and spirits, the 
imxperfections and discrepancies that are natural to the 
human mind in all degrees and spheres of progressive 
life. The fixed laws of truth, as appreciated by the 
philosophical reason, eventually explain and settle all 
doubts. Read all sides, prove all thinsrs, and hold fast 
to that which is rational and good. In this connection 
the affirmations of another writer"^ are required : — 

" While every orb inhabited by human races through- 
out the immensities of space presents, when viewed 
from celestial appearance, during its first great human 
epoch or day, an undivided heavenly sphere, encom- 
passing it without rent or seam, there is visible to the 
spiritual left of the planet earth the likeness of a 
divided spheroid, and beyond this two others. These are 
called, in heavenly language, the lower earths of spirits. 
Also, to spiritual appearance, are visible their opposite 
semicircles, three in number, and they are called the 
upper earths of spirits. The three hemispheres of the 
lower spiritual earth of the planet are composed of 
natural, intellectual, and moral disorders; and upon 

*See "Arcana of Christianitj," bj Rev. T. L. Harris, p. 150, Sec. 
265, 266, et seq. 



THE LOCATION OF THE SIBIMER LAKD. 137 

tlieir surfaces all such of its inhabitants as have left the 
natural form, in inmost repugnance to Divine good and 
truth, by the voluntary acceptance of evil as their good, " 
become confirmed in the inversion of the Divine law, 
and divested of such apparent vestiges of good and truth 
as cohere, on leaving earth, to their minds. 

" The three semicircles which are opposite appear in 
spiritual representations as three immense, extended 
spaces, the one beyond the other, inhabited temporarily 
by such inhabitants of earth as, through willingness to 
become puriiied of all evils, are gradually putting off 
the remains of evils acquired in the world, and passing 
into the fullness of regeneration, which, when attained, 
qualifies them to become angels. It must be under- 
stood that this view is an accommodation to the present 
condition of the human mind, and falls far short of the 
stupendous reality. In this same accommodated view 
we behold beyond the outermost and nethermost of the 
spheres of the lower earth the real hells of the planet, 
which are extended on three planes corresponding to 
the inversions of the natural, spiritual, and celestial 
degrees in man — three infernal abodes." 

The arrangement of the three heavens and the three 
hells, above and below the primary and ultimate 
regions of the earth, the writer further explains thus : 



138 



A STELLAR KEY. 



E. — Heavens of the Planet. 



D. — Superior region of the Upper Earth of Spirits. 



C. — Intermediate region of the Upper Earth of Spirits. 



B. — Ultimate region of the Upper Earth of Spirits. 



O — ^Natural Earth. 



Earth. 



E.-— Primary region of the Lower Earth of Spirits. 



G. — Intermediate region of the Lower Earth of Spirits. G- 



H. —Final region of the Lower Earth of Spirits. 



H 



I.— Hells of the Planet. 



Without comment we pass on to take testimony from 
tlie record of a distinguished medium f although, be- 
fore introducing the dialogue, we are constrained to 
remark that the Spirit communicating seems not to 

* Through whom Judge Edmonds received a large variety of com- 
munications. 



THE LOCATIOX OF THE SUMMEE LA2rD. 139 

liave investigated for himself, and thus does not really 
know, what he gives to the inquirer. The first is a 
Skeptic ; the second the Spirit communicating. 

Skeptic. — If vou are able to learn the abstruse thins^s 
Tou state. I see no difficulty in your learning any thing 
that a spirit may know — you might gather the most: 
sublime truths of the eternal world. 

SpipvIi.— True, if I could converse with those who 
know those sublime truths. [Here, very candidly, the 
Spirit confesses a lack of knowledge.] 

Skp. — And why can you not \ If they can tell you 
one thing they can another. 

Sp. — Yes ; just as easy as a man who is six feet high 
can be seven. The spirits I talk with are persons of 
good education, and they can tell me facts in astronomy 
or in any of the sciences, as easily as they could answer 
me the most trifling question. My spirit friends are 
generally those whom I knew on earth. I seek only 
for such things as any well-educated spirit could tell 
me, facts concerning spirit-life. As to the sublime 
truths you speak of, they are continually given to mor- 
tals in the ordinary mode of inspiration ; for there is 
no mortal that is not occasionally inspired. The great 
truths are ever dawning upon us — and rarely, as I 
think, does a truth come to the world of spirits that is 
not immediately conveyed to earth by thousands who 
wish to inspire their cherished fiiends. The one great 
truth that spirits have to teU us is, that they are often 
with us and do communicate with mankind, altliough 
the recipients of their inspiration are imconscious that 
they are inspired. IXine out of ten of all the inven- 
tions of earth have been brought to it from a more 



140 A STELLAE KEY. 

advanced world. The inventors have supposed tlie 
ideas their own, and plumed themselves accordingly, 
w^hile tliej were merely receiving them from their 
invisible friends. 

Skp. — I do not understand — according to your doc- 
trine that spirits are like mortals, only more progressive 
— how the spirits were able to make inventions, if they 
could not while on earth. 

Sp. — Doubtless they are inspired, as we are. They 
often tell me that they speak as they are impressed or 
inspired to speak. Many of them claim to be impres- 
sible mediums, and to be able at any time to hold com- 
munication with the Lythylli. 

Skp. — And what are the Lythylli ? 

Sp. — Spirits of the next estate. Spirits who have 
terminated their career in the spirit- worlds, and gone to 
a system of worlds in the next degree of sublimation — 
worlds as much more refined as their bodies are when 
they have become Lythylli, — as spirits call those above 
them. They are those who have departed that life, 
and returned to converse with those they left behind. 

Sep. — And those Lythylli doubtless talk with beings 
in a condition above them. 

Sp. — Of course, and so on, up to God. Many a 
thought uttered on earth is freshly brought from the 
highest source of inspiration. 

Skp.— -You will admit then that the books of the Old 
Testament may have been inspired by God. 

Sp. — I have always claimed that they were inspired. 
It was not the Creator that spoke directly to man. The 
truths and the commandments which start at the foun- 
tain of wisdom do not always arrive at earth in their 



THE LOCATION OF THE SUMMER LAND. 141 

original purity. And yet as a rule the truth comes to 
us as fast as we can receive it, and as pure as we can 
bear it. There is not one mind in a million that is 
capable of receiving truth in its purity. It requires a 
very high development of all the fa<iulties to open the 
mind to its comprehension. 

Skp. — I should like hereafter to discuss this matter 
further, but now I am chiefly interested in the later 
questions that have been before us. I am interested in 
your system of astronomy. If there were a possibility 
of demonstration or proof, how we might extend the 
science ! As a spirit man might visit the stars person- 
ally, instead of peeping at them through telescopes. 

Sp. — Yes, a few of them, but the great majority of 
them are as far beyond a spirit's reach as they are from 
ours. Remember that a spirit, placed upon a globe 
which is 100,000,000,000 miles from us, looks upon a 
sky almost identical with ours. The only difference is 
probably the substitution of the planets of the spirit- 
systems for those of ours. The fixed stars are the same 
to them as they are to us, being entirely too distant to 
change their relative position. Perhaps observations 
made on earth and upon a spirit-world 100,000,000,000 
miles distant would by the parallax determine the dis- 
tance of many of the stars. But we well know there 
are millions of stars that could not be surveyed from 
so narrow a base. 

Skp. — Cannot spirits visit the fixed stars? 

Sp. — Some of them are near enough to be visited ; 
Sirius, for example. 

Skp. — ^What is the difficulty ? can they not move with 
the swiftness of thought ? 



142 A STELLAR KEY. 

Sp. — Doubtless tiiey can, through a vaciram such as 
the stellar spaces. The difficulty is to think fast enougli. 
A spirit of strong will and great power can move 
through space with great rapidity. His will-force is 
the motive power, and there is nothing to resist his 
progress. He can go in a second of time a distance quite 
incomprehensible to himself, and yet before he reaches 
the fixed stars some time will have been consumed. 

Skp. — You spoke of talking with a spirit who had 
visited Sirius. Did he tell you any thing of it? 

Sp.— Yes. It is larger than our sun by a third. It 
has a more extensive system of planets than we have. 
The people inhabiting them did not seem to him any 
more progressed than the people of earth, and he was 
not so much pleased with the races he saw as he was 
with our own Hellenic race. Only by visiting many 
worlds can we become liberalized. A spirit only can be 
truly cosmopolitan. This astronomer, who had with a 
company of others visited Sirius, learned that the ma- 
chinery of that system of worlds was like ours. It had 
its accompanying solar system for the residence of spirits, 
and the successive systems for theLythylli. It \vas on^ 
of the many systems that with ours wheel round a 
great and distant center, forming together one of the 
many congeries of systems that revolve in almost 
eternal years round a still greater center, which with 
all the masses of worlds created roll round the central 
orb of the universe. 

Skp.— This is a fine picture. I can imagine myself 
located in space, and looking upon the worlds which 
like motes in the sunbeam fill the universe of God. 

Sp. — If you were able to take in at a glance the 



THE LOCATION OF THE SUMMER LAiSD. 143 

whole creation, you would certainly find its movements 
beautiful. Suppose the suns with their planets to form 
a disc. Suppose the systems of spirit-worlds many in 
number to lie parallel to the grosser solar systems upon 
which human beings originate. These discs move 
through space in a platoon, side by side. They do not 
advance in a line perpendicular to their discs, but par- 
allel to them. All spheres having a common origin 
must revolve in the same general direction. The rota- 
tion upon their axes is also governed by an invisible law, 
for there was no chance-work in the great arrangements 
of the heavens. In no other way than this edgewise 
movement could the systems move so safely and so well. 

Skp. — Tell me something of the manner in which 
spirits go and come between earth and the spirit- world. 

Sp. — Let us premise, that when a spirit of earth sets 
his foot upon the globe destined for his second life he 
finds himself standing upon solid ground. He walks 
upon it as he would have walked upon earth, and he 
soon forgets the change of his condition. The world 
he walks on is as solid to him as this earth was to him 
when he was here. There are rocks and trees, water 
and earth, fruits and flowers around him as there w^ere 
on earth, and he must have a good memory indeed if 
he do not soon cease to think of his new abode otherwise 
than to feel how much happier he is. He walks upon 
the ground, and he steps with as firm a tread as ever he 
did, and he weighs as much. 

Skp. — How is it when he leaves earth for his home ? 

Sp. — It requires little effort. He rises into the atmo- 
sphere about as high as the clouds above them, when 
the sky is not clear, until he can see his direction. He 



14:4: A STELLAH KEY. 

then provides for the sustenance of his lungs, and darts 
ofi* toward the sun of his system, which is always clearly 
visible, like a very large star, shining with a soft light 
easily recognized as from a spirit's snn. In a few seconds 
after starting that sun, expands upon his view and the 
planets of the system become visible. He sees the 
globe which is his destination, and directs his course to 
it. Its southern hemisphere is toward him as he 
approaches from earth, and as he nears it he turns to 
that part of it. 

Skp. — You say the spirit-snn is visible from here. 
"Where in the heavens is it situated ? 

Sp. — It is within the constellation Ursa Major (called 
sometimes Dipper), near the pole-star. The two stars 
at the outer end of the cup are called the pointers, be- 
cause they indicate the direction in which to find the 
pole-star : the spirit-sun is seen over the open cup of the 
Dipper, about one-third of the apparent distance from 
the line of the cup that the pointers are apart, and 
rather nearer to the handle end of the cup than the 
outer end. A line from our sun to that star would, 1 
think, be found to be the true Xorth. Possibly the 
vibratory change in the magnetic pole of our earth 
would be accounted for by the revolutions round the 
spirit-sun of the larger planets of that system. Possibly 
the magnetic pole of the earth would be at the axis but 
for the vast accumulations of the metals in the locality 
of the magnetic pole. If these matters w^ere all under- 
stood, all the phenomena of earth-magnetism would be 
clear to us. 

Skp. — There must be parts of our earth where spirits 
cannot so easily see their sun. 

Sp.— Yes, in the southern hemisphere. The earth 



THE LOCATION OF THE SUMIMER LAXD. 145 

would then be between. He would have to go off the 
semi-diameter of the earth to see it, if he started from 
the South pole. 

Skp. — I have understood you to say that the world 
upon which spirits from earth generally reside is not so 
large as this. 

Sp. — Yes, Juno is six thousand five hundred miles in 
diameter. Its moon is two thousand miles in diameter 
and one hundred and eighty thousand miles distant from 
Juno. To the inhabitants of earth is apportioned the 
planet Juno, to the inhabitants of our moon is appor- 
tioned the satellite of Juno, to the inhabitants of Venus 
and Mercury is given Iris, the first planet from the sun. 

Skp. — You spoke of the inhabitants of the moon. I 
thought there was no atmosphere there, and that, there- 
fore, no life could exist there ? 

Sp. — The side turned from us is inhabited. The side 
turned toward us has no visible atmosphere, no water, 
and no life. 

Skp. — How can that be ? 

Sp. — The^center of gravity of the moon is seven miles 
out of the center of the mass. That throws one side 
out fourteen miles, and making an equivalent of a 
mountain of that height. Although the atmosphere in 
the moon may reach thirty or forty miles, yet at the 
height of fourteen miles it would be insufficient to sus- 
tain life, and it would moreover be intensely cold. The 
side thus projectiDg is attracted toward the earth, and 
thus we never see but one side. On the other side, 
however, there are soil, atmosphere, water, and vegeta 
ble and animal life, as on this earth. 

Skp. — I feel continually a disposition to ask you how 
1 



110 A STELLAR KCY. 

you know these matters, such as the condition of the 
other side of the moon, which has never been seen by 
mortal eye, but you will reply that spirits have told you 
so. This I cannot realize, for my friends do not come 
back from heaven to instruct me. I wish, without paus- 
ing to controvert your statements, to hear all that you 
have to say about the astronomy of the spirit-world. 
Tou have, I suppose, learned the exact distance of 
heaven from earth ? 

Sp. — I think I have been correctly informed. I must 
depend on the statements made to me, and wait till the 
multitude of statements shall be received as proof. The 
distance of the spirit-world from this solar system is 
stated to be 103,000,000,000. The size of their sun is 
1,204,088 miles. Its apparent size to an observer on jj 
earth is about the same as that of our planet Yenus. 

Skp. — The greatest difficulty I find in all your theory 
is learning to think of the invisible and intangible sub- 
stance of a spirit's body as a real solid thing. It seems 
nearer to nonentity. 
^\ Sp. — We cannot easily comprehend a condition of 
matter which we have never had opportunity to examine. |j 
As we cannot see it nor feel it, it is natural to ignore its f I 
existence. Many a time in the period of your life have 
comets swe]3t across the heavens. Tou have distinctly 
seen them with the naked eve. One which vou saw 
was 50,000 miles in diameter, and of so rare a substance 
that a star of the sixth magnitude was seen throuo'h its 
center. 'Now as the lightest cloud will hide such a star, 
it proves that the density of that little fleck of cloud 
was more in that small space than in the 5,000 miles 
depth of the mass of the comet. Indeed, it is not un- 



ii 



THE LOCATION OF THE SUMMER LAXD. 147 

reasonable to suppose tliat a room full of gas or smoky 
air would, out in space, expand to the dimensions of 
that comet, and be visible at the distance of a hundred 
millions of miles. You can and do comprehend all 
that, because the matter in question is gross matter, 
though exceedingly rare. If it were sublimated matter, 
however dense, the light of the sun would not reflect 
from it, and there-fore you would ignore its existence 
because it required the eyes of philosophy to see it. 
Eemember that matter, though sublimated, is still 
matter, and is subject to all the natural laws, just as 
absolutely as the infinitesimal quantity of matter in the 
rarer comets, which forms itself into a sphere and travels 
through space like a solid planet. Xature does not ex- 
cuse any particle of matter from obedience. If there be 
but one particle of matter to make a world, that particle 
must obey the law. 

Skp. — I am inclined to believe with you that all 
matter in the universe, whether gross or refined, is 
subject to the natural laws : I can, therefore, though 
with difficulty, comprehend that the globes wherever 
reside the spirits of the departed, may be real substantial 
matter. I begin to see that it must be so, that spirit must 
have a solid world to live on, as we have, else the con- 
ditions necessary to their happiness could not be found. 

Sp. — I am gratified that you have surmounted the old 
prejudices so common, I might almost say universal, in the 
world. Assuredly not one in a thousand ever tliinks or 
reasons upon the nature of a fnture life. Men muse and 
dream about it, but the result of all is a few fantastic 
glittering palaces built in the clouds, so very frail and 
unsubstantial that they vanish like a spirit at the first 
breath of common sense. 



14:8 A STELLAK KEY. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE SU:MMER LAKD. 

An inspired discourse on this theme comes to us with 
a number of cogent passages."^ The speaker is moved 
to consider the question of elementary spirit and elemen- 
tary matter, and to adduce arguments in favor of the 
hypothesis that the original and primordial substance 
was spirit. Some writers, he proceeds to say, make -a 
distinction between matter and spirit — ^between the ele- 
mental particles of the two substances. Now, one of 
two things is certain : If the two substances, matter and 
spirit, were primordial and distinct entities, then neither 
is infinite, but finite — limited and bounded. That is to 
say, the elements of matter are limited, and therefore 
do not pervade the universe. But they do occupy points 
of space. Now, it is a mathematical axiom that two 
substances cannot occupy the same point of space at the 
same time. But these writers tell us that spiritual sub- 
stance, so-called, fills another portion of the universe. 
Now, no mind can suppose that a particle of spiritual 
substance, which is real, can occupy the same point of 
space that matter occupies. "What follows? Why, 
that spirit itself is not infinite. Thus we have presented, 
not a universe, but a dual- verse of living matter on one 

* The extracts in this chapter are from a Lecture bj the inspired S. J. 
Finnejj delivered in New York, March 27, 1864. 



A PHILOSOPHICAL YIEW OF THE SOIMEE LAND, lid 

side and living spirit on the otlier. Can matter be in- 
spired by spirit^ if the two are radically distinct and 
both finite? Where is our infinity? It is only two 
finites. "Where is the divine intelligence ? Where is 
God ? Where is religion ? Where is our immortality ? 
It is a logical impossibility. The truth is this : Man is 
immortal only because he is the incarnation of the 
Divine substance, and since that is infinite, he cannot 
any more be dissolved than the universe can be. 

On this subject of elementary matter and spirit, let 
me quote the w^ords of an immortal : — ^ 

" The spiritual body is a substance ; and yet it is not 
what you term ' matter.' Spirit bears the same relation 
to earthy matter that light sustains to the element of 
water — the same as the form to the ground which 
enlivens it. The spiritual body is 'matter' spiritual- 
ized ; as the flower is the earth refined." 

Observe the phraseology : " The spiritual body is 
matter spiritualized." Now I am going to analyze this 
statement, and see if it will stand the test of investiga- 
tion. 

The Harmonial Philosophy does not teach us that the 
words of an immortal are absolute authority on theo- 
retical or philosophical questions. We take them like 
any other authority, and we put questions to spirit 
personages as though they were here on earth. If the 
spirit-body is matter (in the ordinary signification of 
the term) " spiritualized," then what follows ? Why, 
that what you call matter is spirit materialized. 
Action and reaction are equal and correlative in the 

* See a volume by the Author, entitled " The Present Age and Inner 
Life." p. 124. 



150 A STELLAR KEY. 

dynamics of the universe. Tlie sun's auric waves 
break into zones and the zones into planets, and from 
the planets come satellites. Mark the recent develop- 
ments of science — how they sustain the Harmonial 
Philosophy. Twenty years ago '^Nature's Divine 
Revelations ? announced : '' In the beginning the 
Univercoelum was one boundless, undetinable, and 
unimaginable ocean of liquid fire." What are the late 
revelations of science ? That the motions of the planets 
are the mechanical equivalent of the heat exhausted 
from the sun ; that four hundred and fifty-three four 
hundred and fifty-fourths of this gravitating tendency 
has already been wasted as heat. Only one four 
hundred and fifty-fourth of the original heat of the 
whole solar system remains to us as gravity. Yet 
if this one four hundred and fifty- fom^th were converted 
into heat, it would raise the temperature of a mass of 
water, equal to the sun and planets in weight, twe?ity- 
eigJit millions of degrees centigrade. The heat of the 
lime light is two thousand degrees centigrade; think 
of a temperature equal to tv:)0 million degrees centigrade 
— if you can. The gravitation of worlds is the result 
of the heat lost. If our entire system were pure carbon, 
its combustion would generate only one three thousand 
five hundredths of twenty-eight million degrees centi- 
grade. So the mechanical motion of the heavens is 
always the complement of the heat lost. Therefore the 
present state of the universe is the result of con- 
densation. 

Science is proving that the now solid worlds were 
once in such a fine, ethereal state, that no external 
senses that man possesses could have .revealed their ele- 



A PHILOSOPHICAL TIEVT OF THE SOniER LA2sD. 151 

mental exii^tence to liim. Body had not appeared. It 
came at last, by cooling and condensation — or by 
" materialization/' 

Conversely — take water, raise its temperature till it 
becomes steam : Can yon see it ? Out of that steam 
nnfold electricity ; out of that, magnetism ; and so on, 
one substance after another, nntil you reach the limits 
of external science — where will you stop ? ZSTowhere 
this side of the original state of what you call '• matter/' 
which state is an infinite remove from ''body/' and can 
be called by no other name but spirit fessence?]. 

Xow. what is '' matter r* I answer. It is a word 
which ought to be applied not to the original substra- 
tum of things, but only to the fo/'/n or hodi/ of things. 
It is a misnse of the word to apply it to the primordial 
and eternal elements of the universe. It is a word 
derived fi'om the action of the senses upon the 2?he' 
riOmena of body only. It. therefore, relates only to 
body. Bnt what is body \ Gross material \ Xo. 
Heat a granite rock in your retort ; analyze it ; what 
do you get ? Gases. Put any thing tlu'ongh a chemi- 
cal analysis, and what do yon get \ Xot body, but a 
gaseous substance. And the more critically and 
thoroughly yon carry your analysis, the less do you see 
of what you call " matter.'" Your granite rock is so 
changed that, instead of having gravitation, it ascends 
and escapes outward into the universe. Its specific 
gravity is changed into specific levity. The significa- 
tion, therefore, which you attach to ^'matter," is 
unphilosophical. It is a word derived from the expe- 
rience of the senses. Original elements are eternal, and 
cannot, therefore^ be seen by the senses, for they are 



152 A STELLAR KEY. 

limited by space and time. And how can faculties 
limited under space and time reveal the existence 
of elements which know neither space nor time ? 
Chronological fanctions are correlated only with chro- 
nological phenomena. Only Pure Reason can know 
Pure Being; for Pure Reason alone is consciousness of 
Pure Being, Pure Intelligence is Pure Being 'know- 
ing itself. Sensation knows only phenomena. It is, 
therefore, only in pure intelligence, or spirit, that being 
is known. Body is the phenomenon miscalled " mat- 
ter." The word " matter," therefore, derived, as it is, 
only from the action of the senses, means only phe- 
nomena. Pure intelligence is, therefore, the only 
primordial stuff of things — the one eternal substance at 
the basis of all bodies. And this I call pure spirit. 
And by inductive science this pure spirit can never be 
reached, for it is an infinite distance (in time) removed 
from the phenomena of mere body. Eternity alone 
could suffice to complete the empiricle process back- 
ward and inward to this great center of the Cosmos. 
But man is pure spirit in his inmost, and hence pure 
being is revealed directly, at once, in consciousness 
itself. 

But let us go a step further. Science is proving by 
induction that these external material forms are only 
appearances of fine, ethereal, everlasting essences. 
The "material" world is only spirit materialized, 
condensed, and made up into forms under light and 
shadow. It is nothing but the image of the infinite 
perfection. It is not spirit that you see and touch with 
your fingers ; it is the body, the shadow, the form. I 
grant you it is real to your senses, but real what? 



A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE SUMMER LAND. 153 

Answer : Real phenomena. Hence jou see the view 1 
take that the only substance in the universe, in the first 
instance, must be Spirit. Whatever it may become 
afterwards, in appearance, in phenomenon, in manifes- 
tation, whether it be in the solar atmosphere breaking 
off into waves and circles of suns, one after the other, 
from the great vortex of the Univercoelnm, or the sys- 
tems of planetary worlds derived from the great central 
sonrce, or the vegetation and the animal life that exists 
on those planets, it is all one original stuff emanating 
from the great Central Sun, through ever-expanding 
circles toward the circumference. But action and 
reaction are equal, and if these material worlds are 
spirit materialized, then the spirit-spheres are body 
spiritualized. We cannot have a spiritualizing or 
upward process until we have a materializing or down- 
ward process. These are complements of each other. 
One is attained by the translation of heat into the 
mechanical motions of the heavens, while the attain- 
ment of spiritual development, or the spirit-spheres, is 
but regaining the heat so lost. And you will find, as 
you rise through the sphere of immortal life, that you 
are departing from mere mechanics — that, as you 
approach nearer and nearer the impersonal God — the 
Divine Intelligence — you flee farther and farther from 
the limited and bounded ; that the shadows of these 
material bodies are disappearing, while the reascending 
energies of this one only substance are unfolding spirit. 
The Spirit-world is developed by a reverse comple- 
mentary action of the " materializing" process. The 
spiritualizing process must repeat on a higher scale, in 
reverse order, the cycles of the career of world build- 



154 A STELLAR KEY. 

ing, because action and reaction are equal. These 
worlds come out of the solar atmosphere, being con- 
densed from vast solar rings. Science confirms this 
view ; everj^ step of its progress brings us more and 
more near to this great general truth. Xow what fol- 
lows? That the spirit-sphere which emanates from this 
grosser "material" sphere, and constitutes the second 
sphere, or Summer Landj must be created by a process 
exactly the reverse of that by which the earth and other 
planets are produced. 

Science teaches us that the whole solar system was 
once filled with solar ether, and was itself a portion of 
a vast zone of some far-oJff stellar center, and that the 
process of world-formation was by the breaking up of 
these zones of solar atmosphere into planetary bodies. 
What, then, must be the spiritual process, but a re- 
smelting, a disintegration of the elements, and a rolling 
of them back, through successive stages, toward the 
great Central Sun of the universe again, but in a higher 
plane ? You must have a process of building the spirit- 
sphere exactly the reverse of that of building these 
planetary worlds. And when you realize this law of 
analogy, you will see how vast must be that second 
sphere — the Summer Land. 

]^ow, in regard to this subject, I consider that some 
minds have fallen into a most illogical mistake in loca- 
tino; the Summer Land. Althoug-h one writer admits 
fully the principle that spirit emanations from the earth 
ascend and form another sphere, yet he locates the 
spirit-zone immediately around the earth's equator, and 
ma.kes it only sixty degrees wide. Kow two millions 
of human beings pass to the Spirit-world from this 



A PHILOSOPHICAL XIEV^ OF THE SU^DIEE LAXD. 155 

earth every year, making for everT century two hun- 
dred millions. Geology is teaching us that man has 
inhabited this planet at least one hmidred thousand 
years. Stretch your eyes do^vn the future for one hun- 
dred thousand more. Consider two hundred thousand 
years as the probable life of the world. Then consider 
the increase of population for one hundred thousand 
years to come, and say if you can that such a sphere is 
adequate for the teeming millions of this earth. Can 
you find sufficient space for that number of beings in a 
zone sixty degrees wide around the equator, at the dis- 
tance of the moon ? Such a limited spirit-sphere finds 
no response in reason. 

There is another objection to this limited view of the 
Summer Land. It makes the highest sphere of the 
Spirit-world reach just beyond the moon. Xow, 
though the moon is not yet inhabited, the time may 
come when it will be, and a spirit-sphere evolved from 
that satellite. ^Yhat will be the consequence ? The 
two spheres of the earth and the moon will run into one 
another, creating utter confusion in spiritual geography. 

But this conception of the dimensions of the Sum- 
mer Land is far too contracted. Look out upon this 
boundless universe of God. How many peopled worlds 
are swinging through the vast ocean of immensity I 
Shall there be no unitive TTorld where all these peoples 
associate? Are we to be confined to this little speck 
of earth, this mote of shadow in the everlasting sun- 
beam? Yt'^hy has God given me my social nature, if I 
am net to feel the waves of aftection that float from the 
immortal Societies arisen from other worlds i And what 
room have I for immortal associations on such a little 



156 A STELLAPw KEY, 

spiritual sphere as that which is supposed to environ 
this planet ? Xo, no ; give me a sphere vast enongh to 
infold all the relations of the innumerable worlds of 
the universe — a space commensurate with the grandeur 
and o:lorv and vastness of that universe — a universal 
Summer Land. 

But further, against this limited notion, the Spirit- 
world is made up of the aggregate emanations, in zonal 
forms, of all the teeming planets of one great circle of 
suns, each one of which contributes its quota of spirit- 
ualized elements. As you approach a flower-garden, 
you first discover it by your senses. You cannot see 
the emanations of its life. I have seen the flaming 
aura of these forms in Xature. A handful even of dead 
earth has its emanations, because it is undergoing a pro- 
cess of change and translation. So with all the forms 
of earth; the elements rise, and they can never entirely 
come back again. Some of the grosser constituents 
may settle near the earth, and become reorganized, but 
the entire elements never return. The earth, as it re- 
volves through space, become more dense; its inner 
life is flowing from it; where does it go? Out into 
space, like an aura. The currents of these material 
elements flow first toward the north, where, by process 
of refinement, getting eliminated, they rise into the 
higher atmosphere and flow southward. You may see 
these emanations, by means of spirit-vision, sweeping 
toward the south pole, surging toward the spiritual 
zone, moving upward into the vast magniflcent ocean 
of the spirit-sphere, and thus forming a vast zonal circle 
called the Summer Land. It is a step toward the Di- 
vine Center, a translation from the condition of cold, 



A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE Sr^niEE LAXD. 157 

gross matter. It is a process of eliminating what you 
call ^'matter" into spirit, mifolding its powers and 
qualities, and making it real, substantial, perfect, and 
beautiful. Hence the relation between the Spirit- 
world and this earth, or other earths, that are peopled 
or unpeopled, must be first an elemental relation. We 
talk about the vastness and magnificence of our Missis- 
sippi River. Do you suppose there are no rivers of 
finer and more ethereal waters in the Spirit-world ? 
Years ago angels told me : " Could you open your 
spirit-eyes, you would see vast rivers of magnetic or 
spiritual life rolling from the planets toward the spirit- 
home in the universe — fiowing from these solid worlds 
to make up the elements of the spheres." On the 
bosoms of these rivers the elementary particles of re- 
fined organisms ascend. But man alone as a person- 
ality ascends. Why ? Because he alone is a microcosm. 
The other forms contribute elements; man contributes 
his. personality. This world is joined to the other by 
positive and negative laws, just as the magnetic current 
between the two poles of a battery connects the two 
ends, and each is indispensable to the other in the 
grand process of change and of cosmical spirit-eleva- 
tion. 



158 A STELLAR KEY. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE SPIRITUAL ZO^^ES Al^IOKG THE STARS. 

A CLAIRVOYANT lookiiig into space from the eartli sees 
a great number of shining belts in different directions. 
These nebulous rings in the sky, which diminish and 
increase, symmetrically, as they recede from and 
approach to their respective aphelions and perihelions, 
mislead clairvoyants, mediums, and even many spirits, 
with respect to the location and dimensions of the 
different spirit-worlds. The cause of conflicting testi- 
mony is thug disclosed. Tiie first year or more of my 
own observations I was frequent!}^ mistaken on these 
identical points. The judgment improves in the state 
of clairvoyance the same as under any other educational 
stimulation. 

Almost every star or globe, like the earth, has one or 
more meteoric belts revolving around the planet's 
body, and in appearance similar to the rings of Saturn. 
They are variable in magnitude, in brightness, and 
apparently in the order or periodicity of their revolu- 
tion. (In a future volume these grand heavenly won- 
ders will be treated at length.) The general principle 
is, that the planets double their distances as they recede 
from the sun. Between the orbits of Earth and Mars 
there is a space of about 50,000,000 miles in width, and 
between Mars and Jupiter's orbit there is an interval 
of " airy nothing " not less than 319,000,000 of miles 



THE SPIEITUAL ZONES AMONG THE STARS. 159 

broad. In this space we observe a vast bright belt of 
apparently continuous solid matter, which, npon closer 
examination, is revealed as a river of small stars flow- 
ing, or revolving like numerous other rings, around tlie 
positive sun of our system. Tliis splendid panorama 
of stellar beauties I formerly supposed might be the 
'' Second Sphere." But further growth in clairvoyance 
sharpened the discriminating faculties, and thus the 
circle of asteroids in that portion of the heavens became 
clearly understood. There are about 31,400,000 miles 
of space between the orbits of Yenus and Alercury. In 
this interval, also, as between Mercury and the Sun, I 
perceive rivers of cometary bodies — ^looking like the 
gorgeous rings of Saturn, only far more loaded with 
the red flames of fire, and a kind of blazing ether, from 
which a vast white reflection is sometimes spread 
through the whole southern hemisphere of the heavens. 
Some seers have supposed (and myself among them) 
that one of these broad continuous a^steroidal rings was 
the real spirit-world belonging to our earth. More 
accurate information, however, conveys new ideas of 
magnitudes and relations ; and the first Summer Land 
is found to be revolving near the grand orbit of the 
Milky Way. 

There is something to be learned from the law of 
gravitation — the weight and the lightness of bodies — 
by which law the logical and mathematical reason can 
approximately locate the Solid Spiritual Zone in space. 
The philosophy of the schools [see Comistock and other 
authors] teaches that the force of gravity is greatest at 
the surface of the earth, and decreases both upward 
and downward but in difi*erent de2:rees. It decreases 



160 A STELLAE KEY. 

above the surface as the square of the distance from the 
center increases. From the surface to the center it de- 
creases, simply as the distance increaseSc That is, 
gravity at the surface of the earth (which is about 
4,000 miles from the center) is four times more power- 
ful than it would be at double that distance, or 8,000 
miles from the center. According to the principles just 
stated, a body which at the surface of the earth weighs 
a pound, at the center of the earth will weigh nothing. 

1,000 miles from the center it will weigh J of a pound, 



2,000 






" 


i u 


" 1 of a pound, 


3,000 






u < 


i a 


'' f of a pound, 


4,000 






u < 


I (( 


" 1 pound, 


8,000 






U ( 


( u 


'' h 


12,000 






(i ( 


t u 


" -^j and so on. 



The force of gravity is absolutely greatest at the 
center of the- earth ; but at that point it is exerted in 
all directions, and consequently a body at that point 
would remain stationary, because there is no superior 
attraction for it to obey. 

Conversely, ascending into the atmosphere, the higher 
the rarer, and yet, as " the force of gravity is absolutely 
greatest at the center," so at the highest point of our at- 
mosphere a 7iew deoisity exists from which, as a basis, a 
new action of the law is developed. Popular science 
presented the atmospheric scale thus : — 

Altitude in Miles. Density. 

1 

1 i 

14 ...... . ,V 

21 -h 

28 2*6 

Oc) ...... . 1024 

*^' ' • • • • • • loouuTTo 

10^ ....... ToUoo'oTruo'o" 

14U ....... ToUUlJoooFoooo 

etc. etc. 



THE SPIRITUAL ZONES AMONG THE STAES. 161 

Irom this table it will be seen, says Prof. Kirkwood, 
that at the height of 35 miles the air is one thousand 
times rarer than at the surface of the earth ; and that, 
supposing the same rate of decrease to continue, at the 
height of 140 miles the rarity would be one trillion times 
greater. The atmosphere, however, is not unlimited. 
When it becomes so rare that the force of repulsion be- 
tween its particles is counterbalanced by the earth's 
attraction, no further expansion is possible. To deter- 
mine the altitude of its superior surface is a problem at 
once difficult and interesting. 

Science has recognized the probability of what to the 
clairvoyants has been long well known, that the inter- 
planetary spaces are filled with a refined and elastic 
ether, through which all planets revolve, and by which 
a perfectly electrical and magnetic sym.pathy is estab- 
lished between all inhabited planets and the Summer 
Land. 

The plane of the orbit of the Summer Land appears 
to be at an angle of 20^^ with that of the sun. [The 
volume on " Astronomy," which I hope to reach some 
time not far future, will contain these facts more in de- 
tail.] The sidewise appearance of the Spiritual Zone, 
and also its appearance as a stratified belt, are indicated 
in the illustrations already presented. The remarks of 
Humboldt, in his Cosmos^ vol. 1, p. 126, concerning the 
solar light are here in order : Those who have lived for 
many years in the zone of palms, must retain a pleasant 
impression of the mild radiance with which the Zodi- 
acal Light, shooting pyramidally upward, illumines a 
part of the uniform length of tropical nights. I have 
seen it shine with an intensity of light equal to the 



162 A STELLAR KEY. 

Milky Way in Sagittarius, and tliat not only in the 
rare and dry atmosphere of the summits of the Andes, 
at an elevation of from thirteen to fifteen thousand 
feet, but even on the boundless grassy plains, the Llanso 
of Venezuela, and on the sea-shore, beneath the ever 
clear sky of Cumana. 

In another place this author brings out something 
equally important : " Great as is the obscurity which still 
envelops the material cause of the Zodiacal Light, still, 
however, with the mathematical certainty that the 
solar atmosphere cannot reach beyond nine-twentieths 
of the distance of Mercury — the opinion supported by 
Laplace, Schubert, Arago, Poisson, and Biot, according 
to which the Zodiacal Light radiates from a vapory 
flattened ring, freely revolving in space between the 
orbits of Yenus and Mars, appears, in the very deficient 
state of observation, to be the most satisfactory . . . 
No telescope has yet indicated any sidereal character in 
the vaporous, rotating, and flattened ring of the Zodi- 
acal Light. Whether the particles of which this ring 
consists, and which, according to some, are conceived 
to rotate upon themselves, in obedience to dynamic con- 
ditions, and, according to others, merely to revolve 
around the sun, are illumined or self-luminous, like 
many kinds of terrestrial vapors, is a question as yet un- 
decided." 

Leaving upon the reader's mind these few suggestive 
words from a scientific authority, I pass on to consider 
other branches of this beautiful tree of stellar truth. 



TRAVELING AND SOCIETY 12^^ THE SUMMEE LAND. 163 



CHAPTER XVI. 

TEAYELIXa AND SOCIETY IN THE SU^OIER LAND. 

The human Will, having by constitntion and relation 
a '^ power" which is higher than organic ''force," can 
overcome the force of material gravity, and attain a 
buoyancy in accordance with the refinements and tides 
of the ethereal rivers of space, and thus the individual 
may rise bodily, and float like a person bathing and 
floating in a beautiful stream in summer-time. The 
spirit-body, remember, floats on the bosom of these 
flowing celestial streams. Upon the celestial current 
the spirit moves with the speed of light. Individuals so 
borne along testify that they experience or realize no 
7notio7i^ unless they approach and glide past an orb or 
other body in space. One celestial traveler said that 
he was conscious of movino; or floatino; at the rate of 
what seemed to be not more than a mile an hour ; 
another said that she was not conscious of any motion 
at all ; and yet it was asserted that both were " flying 
through space millions of miles an hour, three times 
farther than from here to the sun, inside of one hundred 
and twenty-flve minutes !" A voyage on the celestial 
seas may be accomplished quicker than a telegraph- 
operator could record the fact for the daily press. 

Birds, you know, ride beautifully through the atmo- 
sphere ; sometimes without so much as moving their 
wings. Certain winged ones can keep themselves 



164 A BTELLAE KEY. 

moying through the air by means of the momentum 
accumulated by the previous use of their strong electri- 
cal wings. You observe that these peculiar birds work 
their wings vigorously and rapidly before they suspend 
their motions, and commit themselves wiih such beau- 
tiful confidence to the buoyancy and integrity of the 
viewless air. This fact in outward creation illustrates 
the principle of traveling by spirit will-power. Birds 
of loftiest flight work upon and frictionize the air on 
the same principle as the glass cylinder in " a magnetic 
machine " works against the silken cushions. Accord- 
ing to my investigation, birds develop themselves into 
Leyden-jars. All birds, by the motions of their wings 
in the act of flying, fill their bodies and very bones with 
essential electricity. Their feathers are non-conductors, 
and thus the electricity or essence which they collect is 
not easily exhausted. Birds cannot easily bring their 
forces and wills to bear against a strong current of air, 
but they accomplish the whole feat of aerial navigation 
sufficiently to illustrate the principle of post-mortem 
traveling on these celestial currents. Birds of flight 
bring the electrical principle^ of the atmosphere into the 
finest tissues and air-chambers of their hollow bones. 
Ornithologists find that the bones of birds are supplied 
with nothing substantial to the eye. Some suppose 
they are filled with air ; yes, just as a Leyden-jar is filled 
with electricity. Through the spreading and vibrations 
of their wings they develop electricity and discharge it, 
as the electric eel discharges the subtile current without 
communicating any shock to itself. These birds, unless 
they have untrammeled opportunities to expand and 
vibrate their wings, and thus to ascend and fly, have no 



TEA.YELING iJSD SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER LAND. 165 

buoyancy. Like lieavy domestic fowls, if you clip one 
of their wings, or in any way accustom them to the foot- 
exercises of a yard-life, they seem to lose the power of 
working up the magnetic forces, whereby they gather 
the more external electric or buoyant principle. 
Domestic birds do not lose this power, but they lose the 
habit of flying, and therefore have no more buoyancy 
than any wingless bodies of similar weight. It is pos- 
sible for earth's present inhabitants to realize what I am 
now stating — the ability, not bodily to fly through the 
air exactly as birds do by means of wings, but in 
harmony with the buoyant electric principle, and by a 
wise employment of this sovereign " power " which is 
implanted in spirit, with which all may measurably 
conquer circumstances. By this "power," mankind, 
preserving each his own peculiar life and individuality, 
in harmony with those invariable celestial river-tides, or 
currents, will be enabled after death to travel from the 
Summer Land to diflferent departments of the heavens 
so filled with orbs, and to visit what would seem to be 
immeasurable localities and interminable avenues with 
more ease, naturalness, and infinitely more pleasure, 
than you can now travel from your home to foreign 
places on this globe. 

Again, this power of the spirit's will is marvelous in 
a chemical point of view. Do you suppose that the 
good Father has made mankind to live no more than 
" three-score and ten years," and that then the whole 
life and temple of each one will be utterly destroyed ? 
No ! man is built to live an hundred years. But the 
finest piece of mechanism possible to conceive is this 
spiritual constitution of man. Will it cease to be of 



166 A STELLAR KEY. 

service? It has been urged many time5 that this world- 
is but the rudimental existence. Do you not see that 
these crude and unsatisfactory adaptations — these undis- 
ciplined and ungoverned elements of character — are 
only in their elementary state ? Mankind require 
germination and development from the inmost. Tha 
love of art, like art itself in this world, is but prophetic. 
If a man's spirit yearns to paint the Madonna so that 
she would seem to others' eyes to be a loving, breathings 
palpitating lady of heaven, and yet but a work of art" 
on insensate canvas, is this yearning not a prophecy to 
his own love-laden soul that the intense aspirations 
which the good Father implanted shall find ultimate 
gratification ? In a word, is it not plainly saying to the 
spirit that, by means of that '* power" which shall be 
unfolded from within, he will develop as perfect a 
''form" as he had conceived as possible on the canvas, 
and, indeed, infinitely more holy, loving, breathing, 
adorable, and heavenly ? 

Spiritual investigators in America have had a great 
many demonstrations of this form-making power of 
spirit within the last ten years. The illustrations have 
been furnished by many spirits of great intelligence, of 
power over the chemical aflinities of the air. Persons 
who have taken no interest in either Science or Art, 
will not be able soon '* after death" to do these almost 
magical or miraculous things with imponderable prin- 
ciples. It is said that a great many inhabitants in the 
Summer Land know nothing about what wondrous 
changes can be accomplished in the- air by the will. I 
have a good mother who, although she has been there 
a full score of years, does not yet forai a clear concep- 



TEAYELING AND SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER LAND. 16 T 

tion of how — that is, on what principle in matter and 
mind — these '^manifestations" occnr, some of which 
slie herself has occasionally made by the senses of per- 
sons still en earth. She, an affectionate and reverential 
spirit, does not apply her mind to study the method. 
For her it is enough to know that it can he done^ and 
that, like breathing, it is productive of happiness. Is 
not this natural to some minds? How many think, 
when on a steamboat, of the prodigious force of the 
concealed engine ? Much less do persons think of the 
days and years of agony and poverty and discourage- 
ments which the successive inventors of that hidden 
steam-machine experienced before they brought it to its 
present degree of perfection. Men do not often think 
of these things — of method ; they only look at ultimates 
and results. 

So with myriads who now reside in the Summer 
Land. They take particular interest in what is possi- 
ble, and only see results that are wrought in terrestrial 
circles. 

In the city of New York, on many different occasions, 
most beautiful transient flowers were chemically and 
artistically formed out of suitable elements, the mag- 
netic essences, which ever pervade the atmosphere. 
These astonishing specimens of spirit workmanship were 
presented to members of the circle. Each flower thus 
formed was perfectly palpable to the bodily senses. 
The different colors and odors were distinct. And the 
stems and leaves could be felt and held in the hand. 
On one oecasion a spirit-flower was placed on the man- 
tel, according to directions, and the member who did 
it went back to the table ; then the eyes of each inves- 



168 * A STELLAR KEY. 

tigator were fixed upon the flower, and in the course of 
twelve minutes the whole plant totally vanished ! 

Those who have deeply investigated are familiar- 
with this " power of will of spirit," which can be effec- , 
tually used by the wise, intelligent, and artistic. The ; 
most gifted spirits have the ''power," chemically, to i 
bring together .njagnetically essential particles that are ] 
floating in the human atmosphere. Thus they con- j 
struct and inspire with transient animation some of 
the most perfect forms of beauty. And yet the mere 
hodily p7'€sence of peculiar temperaments in a circle, 
will utterly prevent such a manifestation. Some per- 
sons breathe in and use up the requisite particles in the 
atmosphere. In most instances a certain combination 
of imponderable principles is indispensable to such 
manifestations. That combination is, for the most part, 
accidental or fortuitous ; because even spirits, as a gen- 
eral thing, are not regulated by an intellectual appre- 
ciation of scientific combinations. Neither spirits from 
the Summer Land nor terrestrial investigators have 
ascertained how, many of certain vital and mental tem- 
peraments should be associated to constitute a perfectly 
successful circle for the manifestation of palpable 
'' forms." At present, therefore, throughout the coun- 
trj'', the manifestation takes the form of " social inter- 
course." Being social, it is regulated by no intellectual 
by-laws, or " scientific formulas," and disorder, confu- 
sion, and contradictions are the not unfrequent conse- 
quences. But this phase of haphazard, disorderly in- 
tercourse is passing, and Spiritualists are adopting 
methods that will lead to a more thorous-h understand- 
ing of their high and glorious opportunities. 



TRATELIXa AND SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER LAND. 1G9 

Principles are both omnipreseut and impersonal. 
All the principles of the male and female Divinity are, 
therefore, impersonally present in that very spot which 
you now occupy. For instance, you may find where 
you now are all possible chemical principles — the elec- 
tricities, the atmospheres, the gases, the ethers, the po- 
larities — including the principles of vegetation — and 
all the forces and particles of organic life. What is the 
proof? The proof is, you can Ireathe! Breathing is 
a chemical transaction. Chemistry is at the basis of 
all respiration. Tou discharge the carbonic acid, the 
watery vapor, and the nitrogen, while you take in and 
appropriate the oxygen, which is brimming with elec- 
tricity and magnetism, whereby you realize the fire and 
the force of the vital and cerebral systems. There, too, 
is a principle of vegetation. What is the proof? The 
proof is, that if you were to bring suitable conditions 
together, the process of vegetation would immediately 
commence. I know a German chemist, who in five 
days vivified a seed, that would not otherwise sprout in 
less than six weeks by the ordinary course of nature. 
He vivified it by directing upon and through it an 
electro-magnetic current. 

The vegetative principle is beautifully illustrated by 
frostings on the window-glass on cold wintry nights. 
Eeduce sufficiently the temperature of any room with 
window-glass exposed to the air, and forthwith the 
principle of vegetation will manifest itself. Xext 
morning you find beautiful pencilings of plants, vines, 
and twigs with branches. The vegetable principle 
gathers about itself the particles which assume the 
forms and shapes which the principle inspires. 

8 



170 A STELLAPv KEY. 

In like manner the principle of organic life is all 
through this world, and in every possible nook and 
corner of it. Take a tumbler, put in it a little wheat or 
rye flour, and then some water ; let it stand one week 
in a warm atmosphere — would there not be evidences 
of organic life ? How could it happen ? Would some 
personal God send down the formative fiat and fix up 
that little flour and water so that it would begin to 
squirm with life ? Thinkers know better. Through all 
parts and particles of the immeasurable universe this 
principle of organic life exists ; only waiting conditions, 
forces, and suitable opportunity for a full aud complete 
manifestation. 

In this world men see the omnipresence and imper- 
sonality of principles crudely illustrated. But when we 
advance beyond this world — when we become masters 
of *' circumstances," what may not be possible? When 
we rise up into perfect proprietorship ; when our richest 
jewel will be self-possession ; when we shall have the 
full enjoyment and complete knowledge of those attri- 
butes which oftentimes cause their possessor more 
unhappiness than gratification — when this time comes, 
what may we not expect ? 

Benjamin Franklin, the philosopher and philanthro- 
pist, has been recently seen in the City of New York. 
You would have pledged your solemn oath that he was 
present ! And yet he may have been a million leagues 
from the place of " chemical manifestation." To spirit- 
power there is scarcely any limit. It would be difficult 
for any spirit to ''prove an alihir This is an impor-- 
tant point for all investigators to remember. The 
power of the spirit is the power for all to study. The 



TRAYELIXG AND SOCIETY m THE SUMMER LAKD. I7l 

force of the soul is not so important. The soul is 
organically wedged up in the body. 'No man's " soul " 
ever goes out of his body but once ; then it never 
returns, for from that moment the body is dead. The 
supposition that spirits come down the shining highway 
and enter personally the bodies of mediums, as though 
mediums were automatons, is un philosophical. Many 
very sensible persons have affirmed that they have 
" vacated " their own proper physical organizations, in 
order to give room for certain spirits who wished to 
enter. There never was a more complete misappre- 
hension. Mediums have been permitted to say and do 
a great many things, because of the assumption being 
credited that they were not personally present in their 
own bodies. A multitude of Spiritualists and mediums 
are now recovering from the effects of such mischievous 
superstitions. 

And yet the power of the will of a dweller of the 
Summer Land to make himself seen and felt at an 
immense distance, as though he were present in the 
organs of the medium's person, is almost inconceivable. 
It is marvelous to the unphilosophical observer. It 
would seem that the communicating mind was bodily 
and directly within the circle of your presence. The 
psychological connection between the medium-brain 
and the spirit's will is perfect. The characteristics and 
habits of the spirit may be transmitted to the medium 
— ^that is, when the psychological control of the brain- 
organs and thought-faculties of the medium is complete. 
The medium, for the time being, is no self-responsible 
individual; for the will of the communicating spirit 
gives form^ shr/ype^ gesture^ expressions and sj}eech~SiTi 



172 A STELLAR KEY. 

which, to an unprepared observer, looking at the mat- 
ter sensuously, seems as though the controlling spirit 
was there embodied, and that the customary proprietor 
of the " organism " had departed for a time to some 
other place. These possessional " appearances," in this 
sense, are not deceptive. 

Take, for example, the case of Miss -, who has 

surprised, delighted, and instructed the people so often 
— floating them off in her golden chariots of eloquence 
throughout the infinitude of beautiful thoughts — how 
fertile her inspired brain with appropriate illustrations, 
and beautiful imagery, and, sometimes, with the 
material of profound discourse ! She is an instance of 
what we call " inspiration " — an elevation of mentality 
to a place in the sphere of thought where she, person- 
ally, almost ceases to be, and where her higher imper- 
sonal faculties gather themselves to the work, just as 
your poetic talents and reasoning powers would act were 
they promoted to a higher state of freedom, impressi- 
bility, and action. Lifted out of the immediate conscious- 
ness of personality, out of egotisra^ the brain-organs and 
impressible thought-faculties become at once conscious 
of and familiar with the subject presented to them. In 
this state high mountains become '^ a feeling P It is 
the closest identification of consciousness with prin- 
ciple. But mere "intellectual displays" are slowly 
giving way to a superior form of inspiration. The 
psychological power of spirit over the faculties is a 
question exceedingly important to all investigators. 
"We must have a scientific basis for these spiritual 
temples. Purely philosophical principles can alone 
make these manifestations reasonable to all humanity. 



The wondrous power of spirit to impress its thought 
at a long distance is just as natural as is conversation. 
Here, we do not always truly impress our thoughts. 
There, if the affections of two persons are in sympathy 
with each other, the converse is perfect. Those celes- 
tial Brotherhoods — the immense communities which I 
have elsewhere described — can impress each other's 
thoughts through immeasurable distances. But nothing 
of this can occur where there is no affiliation. "Why 
not ? Because of the law of attraction and repulsion. 
If the attraction between distant Brotherhoods is not 
perfect, they can form no mind-telegraphic communi- 
cation with each other. 

The Summer Land, more especially those portions of 
it which are in connection with the inhabitants of earth, 
appears to my interior eyes like a neighboring planet. 
It is the next room in the house not made with hands. 
But there are an infinite number of other rooms. 
Characteristics and peculiarities of the lower territories 
or sections may not prevail in any of the higher divi- 
sions of the sphere. When the eyes of the seer look 
higher, forthwith many of those things which so distinctly 
prevailed, as peculiarly adapted to the neighboring ex- 
istence, utterly cease to exist, both out of the people and 
the scenery, as mankind progressively rise out of 
peculiar and special attachments, attractions, gravita- 
tions, and relations. In that section of the other sphere 
which lies next to us, the law of social aUraction is as 
powerfully operative as it is in this world. It is not 
easy to tell why, but the dwellers are gregarious. They 
are attracted socially to remain very near each other. 
But higher up, or, rather, away in i^ore refined sections, 



174 A STELLAR KEY. 

the people are influenced by other interests. In fact, 
the Indian-like gregariousness becomes distasteful to 
tliose who seek and encourage the finer attractions of 
the Summer Land. Their new and higher and larger 
afiections render theii' former selfish relations almost 
antipathies. 

The next sphere of human existence is only another 
department in the great educational system of eternity. 
There mankind have opportunities to outgrow the errors 
and follies of this life, and thus innumerable myriads 
become prepared for another ascension." If a man 
leaves this world in good spiritual circumstances, he 
may possibly ascend at once to a better brotherhood, and 
be straightway engaged in higher duties, in obedience 
to higher sympathies and attractions. Those who can 
see what is " beautiful " are prepared to receive and 
enjoy what otherwise they could not. While those who 
go in darkness of spirit, who have brought upon them- 
selves discord and misery, go there without these finer 
attractions and advantages, and of course they become 
subjects for the philanthropic treatment and attention 
of others who have souls for higher sympathies and the 
essence of a more beautiful happiness. 

Individual attractions and repulsions prevail very 
decidedly in some sections of the upper world. They 
cannot be wholly conquered by will, though they may 
be governed. Affinities and antipathies come from the 
action of the temperaments of different spirits in the 
vicinity of each other. When you pray, therefore, be - 

* In confirmation of this the reader is referred to '* Death and the 
Afier Life-'-^iast chapter, concerning the Isle gf Akropanamede. 



TEATELIN'G AND SOCIETY IN THE SU^niER LAND. 175 

sure to pray for i\iQ highest manifestation of the king- 
dom of heaven ; that is, for a social and national condi- 
tion above the j)lane of these ungovernable attractions 
and repulsions — for blessings above the sphere of antipa- 
thies and unTvise sympathies. 

The wisest lovers there make great progress by refin- 
ing and elevating the persons who are the objects of 
their love. But earthly minds too often depress the 
objects of their attraction. Is your undisguised attrac- 
tion a manifestation of your love, or of your passion ? 
The source of your interest is perceived and realized by 
the object. Suppose your attraction is not reciproca- 
ted? Why are you so forsaken, or not accepted? Because 
you do not make a distinction between your love and 
your passion for the object of interest. Thus many are 
disappointed in the very place where they had supposed 
marriage would be beautiful and fiiendship permanent. 
- There is in all this system of afiection and disaffection 
a fine spiritual chemistry and a subtile law of magnet- 
ism. Mankind have not yet learned the difference be- 
tween mere passional inclination and true spiritual 
love, which attracts and ennobles its object. The 
former — the attractions of passion — are all of the 
'^ earth, earthy." They, are not found in any of the 
celestial brotherhoods. The wisest do not encourage in- 
discriminate inclination ; they are swayed by neither ex- 
ternal attractions nor disinclinations. They rise up into 
the celestial atmosphere of pure immortal affection. 
It rules all their thoughts, and thus the wisest person in 
the Summer Land is the most loving. Thus you find 
that very distinguished persons, both men and women, 
w^hen thev return to visit your habitations, use great 



176 A STELLAR KEY. 

simplicity of expression. They talk mostly about love 
and sympathy among mankind. They seek earnestly 
to encourage people to cultivate greater fraternity and 
unity of spirit. They bestow fine and beautiful in- 
fluences. But those wise ones do not often discourse on 
the great moral themes and momentous political ques- 
tions which wholly interested them and their friends 
before they left the earth. 

Divinity, in its central life, is love. In this truth you 
behold the source of '* salvation " to yourself and to all 
your neighbors in the wide world. The moment you 
passionately love your object, with a selfish and jealous 
desire to exclude all other hearts from contact with it, 
that moment your exclusive love becomes a chemical 
earthly poison. Under that changeful influence, and 
governed by nothing more wise than vital forces and 
their fiery impulses, you will surely be aff'ected with 
diseases and mental distortions which may disturb your 
rest beyond the grave. 

\ Mankind everywhere should work to bring the '^ king- 
dom of heaven on the earth" — and not pray for it 
merely. J People associate together and the minister will 
pray. "Thy will be done on earth" — that is, ''may 
the divine laws, and celestial principles, and heavenly 
methods, be carried out in human society as they are in 
the Summer Land." What does such a prayer amount 
to ? Nothing, unless you put your affections and your 
will to the worlc of overcoming ignorance and obtaining 
" power " by which you can practice some portion of 
that which you are constantly supplicating heaven to 
help you to accomplish. 
. Fraternal love is at the bottom of true heavenly 



TRAYELING AXD SOCIETY IN THE SOI^ER LAND. 177 

society. Let us, tlien, cease being swayed by these 
lower attractions which constantly produce family feuds 
and cause a few persons to associate to the exclusion of 
the rest of mankind. Selfish and jealous attractions do 
not prevail in the best societies of the upper world. 
They cherish, encourage, and manifest pure love. The 
fi'ont pews in the heavenly society are not set apart for 
the rich people and the back pews for the poor ; neither 
do they make great distinctions in accordance with the 
dictates of a foolish and arbitrary fashion. They who 
have been servants are not treated as inferior members 
of the human family. While on earth, and among so- 
called Christians, they are treated as though they were 
allied closely to brutes, and not human beings; in con- 
sequence of which they are angered, and become thieves 
and liars, and do not hesitate to cheat and steal when- 
ever they can. 

^^^othing but a radical development in society, in 
politics, and in religion, can ever induce some people to 
think deeply, and arrive at the conception that every 
human spirit is capable of being 2:)2i're m its love for the 
neighbor^ I do not mean that you can love all per- 
sons with the same kind and degree of love. I do not 
mean that you will ever exist without the feeling of 
inclination and disinclination. That would be impossi- 
ble. But you need not be so warped and swayed by 
them as to be ^poisoned in your thoughts and affections 
toward those of a different nation and temperament. 
The true and noble in the Summer Land work dili- 
gently among the members of its inferior societies to 
bring about that state of heavenly peace and concord. 
When the inferior societies of the other sphere are har- 

8* 



178 A STELLAR KEY. 

monized, the earth-land will also be more harmonized ; 
then all the races and peoples will begin to feel more 
of that " prayer" which is now but a lip-service among 
the conductors of the Churches. 

The time is approaching when mind icill be svpreme ! 
Spirit, w^ith the power of its will and the healing of its 
love, is to take the ascendant. Then circumstances 
will be to man like the sheaves which Joseph saw in 
his dream, all bowing to the central sheaf; they will 
all bow to the master, not to the machinations of his 
will, not to his high animal ambitions, but only to the 
fine power of his spirit, [^"^"hen a man grows above 
desiring selfish ends — when he arrives at tliat heavenly 
point — then will all high and eternal things be his. 
And he will also own the whole world. He owns the 
city and the country; the sky, the ocean, and all the 
earth. He also becomes the proprietor of all mankind. 
For we are all possessors of each other in the heavenly 
or harmonial state. ' 

Spiritualists have strength and inspiration adequate 
to the living of an entirely new life with reference to 
each other not only, but also with reference to all those 
who are not so blest — the '' neighbors " who swarm in 
the towns, villages, cities, and different countries of 
the globe. They are morally and intellectually able 
to rise above all condemnation and misrepresentation, 
and be sweei^ and pure^ and generous^ and forgiving^ 
under all circumstances. They have but to rise up into 
this '' feeling" that power in the spirit is a portion of 
God; that the inmost spirit only partakes of such 
power ; that force is only animal ; and that when you 
raise your hand in anger to strike another, you place 



TEAYELDTG AND SOCIETY IN THE SUMMER LAND. 179 

yourself on a level with your misdirected opponent. 
For the time being you are no better than he, however 
much he may be the provoker of your anger and you 
the innocent party. Rise out of that combative condi- 
tion. See if you cannot be strong enough to '' love 
your enemies " in the fine Platonic sense, which is the 
most beautiful manifestation of sjDirit. Mankind can 
never have fraternal festive occasions in this w^orld 
unless they attain to higher growth. The festive 
seasons in the higher Societies of the Summer Land — 
from 1851 — to 1855 were memorable to all who witnessed 
them or took part in their celestial joys. The old 
Greeks, Goths, Romans, Germans, and others, forgot 
the heart-hatreds that existed during the feudal period 
of knight-errantry and chivalry. Many of these celes- 
tial Brotherhoods are composed of men who fell in those 
desperate struggles in old England — Normans, Saxons, 
Scots, Picts, Romans, Celts, French — and among them 
are many of the old '' Scottish Chiefs," who waged 
such persistent wars in the early days of European civ- 
ilization. These festive periods are perfect illustrations 
of the Pentecostal times recorded by the writers of the 
New Testament. Now I realize that correspondingly 
joyful festive occasions are possible in this discordant 
world of ours. It is an occasion when hundreds of 
thousands may receive baj)tisms from the inhabitants 
of superior spheres. 

On-e of these celestial gatherings was in session in 
1851. The first sound in my ear was music. The 
melody thereof filled -the whole heavens. It seemed 
to fill the earth with heavenly harmony, and I became 
a part of the scene. The landscapes all around me 



180 A STELLAS KEY. 

seemed to throb and pulsate, and each part responded 
to every beat of the universal mnsic. And it seemed 
that there were in the other world all kinds of musical 
instruments. The effect from the heavenly instrumenta- 
tion was indescribable. But subsequently, in 1855, by 
most careful examination and interrogations, I found 
that no such thing as a musical instruinent was ever 
known to exist in that part of the Summer Land. But 
tlie investigation disclosed the fact that the Jhunian^^ 
voice is a totality _ of sounds! The inhabitants there 
have such perfect acquaintance with the powers and 
sounds of the voice, that, by combining the voices of 
particular persons, they can imitate all possible varieties 
and shades of instrumental music. They accomplish 
more than has ever entered into the heart of man to 
conceive. The association of harmonious voices, which 
is but crudely developed in this world, is one of the 
celestial realities. 

These heavenly festive occasions seem to continue for 
several of our years. To them, however, it is but a 
short period ; to us it would seem to be very long. It 
is a glorious Sabbath-time to them. 

With them there is no account of time. An event 
is one beat in the universal anthem of eternal harmony. 
They terminate their festivals by dividing themselves 
up into sub-societies for the accomplishment of certain 
missions. Some of them accept missions to other 
Brotherhoods, not yet harmonized, in other and more 
distant parts. Others visit those who are constantly 
arriving from the earth, and from the planets in space. 
Think of the soldiers that were constantly ascending 
from the Union and Confederate Hospitals, and from 



TEAYELING AND SOCIETY IN THE STJ^niEU LAKD. 181 

the battle-fields, during the hours of warfare, and think, 
too, of the dying that is every moment going on in 
earthly cities — the old and infirm, the poor and the 
outcast, the starving and despairing — for all these the 
heavenly Societies are formed, and they go about their 
philanthropic missions. It may seem strange to some 
of you that any work of this kind should engage and 
absorb the heart-interests of the inhabitants of the Sum- 
mer Land. But are not the attractions of the best facul- 
ties of human nature immortal ! { Is it not natural that 
good spirits, good men and good women, should divide 
into Societies and form themselves into Associations for 
the furtlierance of good missionsJJ Every member of the 
Excursional Groups has this power of Will (which I 
have already described), by which it is possible to travel 
with great speed through space. In this way some of 
the guardians rescue unhappy men and women who are 
about to shoot, or poison, or otherwise destroy them- 
selves. A guardian angel may save some sad, lone 
one, who is about to drown herself in the stream. 
Many suicidal characters are thus saved. Many are 
not, however, because they cannot be approached. But 
there is no instance (one of them said) throughout the 
intricate parts of human society, where any thing of 
this kind occurs, but some friendly and sympathizing 
spirits are present, either to prevent the misfortune, or 
else to soothe the sad one's darkened passage on to 
another sphere. 

So, therefore, when we each arrive in the Summer 
Land, we shall find persons who are perfectly acquaint- 
ed with all that we have ever done ; no matter how 
multitudinous the floors, how tliick the walls, or how 



1S2 A STELLAK KEY. 

many doors were locked between ns and the world — 
just the same to angel-ejes as though there were no 
walls, no floors, no doors, no locks — just as though all 
dwelling-houses were transparent crystal palaces, in- 
stead of these thick boards and hard stones. Angels' 
eyes are clairvoyant, and they can see as clearly through 
the substances of space as you can see objects before yon. 
This truth will exert an influence on minds that cannot 
be reached by principles. 

JSTow take the moral import and apply it all through 
society. You will not forget that there are many 
heavenly eyes constantly watching your footsteps. 
However faithless, however worthless, however fleet 
you may travel on earth, you cannot get away fi^om 
them. Is'either can you escape from yourself I Go 
steal a gold watch or a treasure, be false and deceive 
others, if you choose ; you will never be able to get away 
from yourself; nor can you hide away from those 
'' guardians " who love you, who know whatever you 
do, and who are always seeking to save, and cherish, 
and make you better. Carry this memory with you 
through life. It is not the gospel of " fear." But it is 
the doctrine of truth, which puts a strange and myste- 
rious check on the play of ungoverned appetites and 
passions. All intuitive souls naturally believe that the 
over-arching heavens are " full of eyes." It was this 
conviction which inspired the following very appropri- 
ate lines : — 

Ah. me ! the solemn thought that man 
Is compassed by such eyes as these ! 

That every action from its birth 
A purer nature sees I 



TRAVELING AND SOCIETY IX THE SUM^IER LAND. 1S3 

Perchance they mark not acts alone ; 

It may be thoughts lie open, too : 
Each sin committed and conceived, 

The sinless angels view. 

Ah ! what a sight for holv eyes, 

The open heart of sinful man I 
VThat is their pity, what their grief, 

"When such a sight they scan ! 

They see the good, whose head is crowned 

With praise from every human hp, 
Full of all frailty when disguise 

Prom his weak heart they strip. 

They mark how selfishness defiles 

The love which men esteem most pure : 

They mark how oft the virtue slips 
We blindly hold most sure. 

"Well might we shudder at the gaze 
That sees what lies most deep within, 

If angels loved, like men. to mark 
The weakness and the sin. 

They love to succor and to heal ; 

In woe they soothe, in guilt reprove : 
It is for kindly offices 

They leave their home above. 



18i A STELLAR KEY. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

THE SUMMER LAND AS SEEN BY CLAIRVOYANCE. 

I NOW behold the forms of earth and the bodies of 
men, including my own, in a light and with a degree 
of perception never before presented. I discover that I 
can only see the forms by judging what and where they 
are, by the light of the spirit : for the outer body is 
beyond my perception, and I only see well-constituted 
and living spirits. By possessing this perception, I am 
enabled to commune with all the possessions of this 
Sphere, and now behold the extended fields and living 
habitations of this elevated existence. 

There are to be observed three specific degrees of 
form and development : the young and unmatured ; 
the advanced stages of these up to tho mediatorial 
degree of manhood ; and the highest of them all, which 
is the perfect form and most highly developed of all the 
spirits there existing. 

I perceive that whenever an infant dies on any of 
the earths, the undeveloped body of its spirit becomes 
deposited in this Sphere, and is lully unfolded in intel- 
lect, and highly enlightened concerning all of its own 
existence and prior situation. The infant that has had 
life and dies in infancy, is, I perceive, in this Sphere, 

Note. — It maybe a source of instruction and satisfaction to those who 
have not yet examined works on the Spiritual Philosophy, to read a 
few extracts from " Nature's Divine Revelations," pp. 647, ct seq. 



THE SinSrvIER LAND AS SEEN BY CLAIRYOT.^JN'CE. 185 

fully developed and perfected. So it is witli all unin- 
formed spirits who escape the body on any earth ; for 
each is here educated in the truths and beauties of the 
whole existence. So it is also with the intelligent and 
highly cultivated ; for they are here more advanced, 
and occupy a position more elevated and refined. 

Moreover, I discover three distinct societies or associ- 
ations of men and females, each occupying a position 
determined by their degree of cultivation, sympathy for 
one another, and power of approaching each other's 
sphere of knowledge and attainment. And what is 
well to relate is, that each society is encompassed by a 
peculiar sphere or atmosphere, which is an exhalation 
from the specific quality of their interior or spii^itual 
characters. Every spirit has a peculiar sphere of its 
own, and also a general one in which it can with 
pleasure exist. And spirits know and associate with 
each other according to the quality of the sphere which 
is exhaled from their interiors. They associate only 
as spheres are agreeable, and as they are capable of 
approaching each other with pleasure. 

So it is also with mankind on earth. They dwell in 
each other's society only as they can coalesce, and 
approach each other with pleasure. So also are exist- 
ing on earth the three specific degrees of development, 
which are youth, manhood, and mature age. But they 
are in a rudimental condition, and not situated in order 
as they are in the Second Sphere. 

I perceive that spirits approach other according to 
the relative degrees of brilliancy which surrounds and 
encompasses their forms. Thus association is deter- 
mined and made perfect by the law of congeniality and 



J 86 A STELLAR EEY. 

affinity, or affection. They have an affection for one 
another in jjroportion to the similarity in the degrees of 
love and purity to which they have attained. Thus 
are tlie three states or societies established. 

In the first society are an immense number of infant 
and uncultivated spirits, which are in various degrees 
of advancement and cultivation, according as such have 
proceeded from the earth. In the second group or 
society are those who have become highly instructed in 
the principles and truths of the Divine Mind. And 
into this society all who die on earth with minds 
properly unfolded are immersed, because here they can 
associate agreeably. In the third society I discover 
spirits of the most enlightened character. The most of 
them proceed from the planets Jupiter and Saturn, and 
also from planets in other solar systems. This society 
is so highly illuminated with wisdom that it is almost 
impossible for the spirits of the lower societies to 
approach it. If they make an effort to enter their 
midst, this is immediately overcome by the strong 
repulsion arising from the non-affinity existing between 
them and their respective spheres. 

The atmosphere that flows from and encompasses 
and protects the first society, is of a mingled and rather 
unilluminated appearance. Its brilliancy is rather 
faint in comparison to that of those above it. It 
appears gloomy, dark, and rather uncongenial, because 
it is an emanation from uncultivated intellects. Yet 
there is a purity — an exceeding purity among them, 
viewed comparatively with that existing on earth. 

The second society is enveloped with an atmosphere 
of far more congenial variegations, presenting a r^ 



THE SUMMER LAND AS SEEN BY CLAIRVOYAXCE. 1S7 

splendent brilliancy which indicates purity and ele- 
vation. It appears like the mingling of many colors, 
such as are not known on earth. And these are all so 
perfectly conjoined, and are blended together in such 
harmony, that the whole ciroriia is of itself a represen- 
tation of purity and refinement. Yet it is a sphere 
emanating from the whole body of the society, indi- 
cating the wisdom of the spirits composing it. Their 
wisdom consists in a knowledge of truths and prin- 
ciples conceiming material and rudimental things ; and 
in them thev are hiorhlv enlio:htened. And the incon- 
ceivable vanety of colors surrounding them arises from 
their dissimilar stages of intellectual advancement. 
Tet they are all in the same plane of wisdom, and 
thus form one society, enveloped by this beautiful and 
refined atmosphere. 

The tidvrl society is also clothed with an aerial gar- 
ment, which is a perfect representation of the character 
and perfection of their interiors. I behold iii it all 
colors, and a variety of reflections proceeding fi^om the 
subordinate societies ; and these reflections render their 
spii'itual emanation so \^^\ beautiful that language is 
inadequate to describe it. 

Those of the first society are in the plane of natural 
thought ; that is, they are just emerging from the 
instructions and impressions of earth, into the wisdom 
of the higher societies. 

The second society is in the plane or sphere of causes; 
that is, they are just emerging from a superior knowl- 
edge of visible eftects presented on earth, to a percep- 
tion of the interior causes of them : and their wisdom 
extends to the lowest and first cause of all material 



18S A STELLAE KEY. 

tilings. Therefore they have a knowledge of all 
interior causes, essences, and thejr modes of external 
manifestation : but they are not in the possession of 
superior wisdom concerning the uses for which causes 
and effects were instituted. 

The thi7'd society is in the plane of effects ; and 
those composing it have a perception of all ultimate 
design, and of the universal adaptation of things to 
each other. Their minds are exceedingly luminous. 
"With their powers of penetration, the externals of 
things are laid open, and they perceive only the char- 
acter and quality of the interior. Their vision extends 
to every recess of their own habitation, and their 
knowledge comprehends all subordinate material exist- 
ences. They have a most unlimited presentation of all 
created things below their elevated position ; and their 
wisdom is light, and love, and brilliancy, and even 
ecstasy, to a degree that transcends description. With 
their unfolded spiritual powers they behold the vast 
landscapes of the spirit-home, too extensive to be com- 
prehended by men on earth, and too beautiful to be 
appreciated or enjoyed by them. 

The third society are not only in a state of emerge- 
ment from the plane of causes to that of effects, but 
also from their sphere to the third world of human 
existence. 

And what is well to relate is, that notwithstanding 
the dissimilitude that exists between the three societies, 
there is a perfect unity among them, and a mutual 
dependence one upon another; and there is a continual 
aspiring aflection that gyrates from the infant intellect 
to the high and superior wisdom of the third society. 



THE SU^IjIER LA>TD AS SEEN BY CLArKYOYANCE. 189 

There is a unity of action, an agreeableness of situation, 
and a propriety of position, whicli cause them all to 
live one for another, like a brotherhood. 

And, moreover, it is profitable to remark that each 
society or group is well situated, well conditioned, and 
well cultivated, in reference to the specific state which 
each is compelled to sustain. The situations are per- 
fect in proportion to the degree of wisdom and refine- 
ment to which each has attained. The lowest appears 
inferior in comparison to the higher and superior; 
though even the first, to man on earth, would appear to 
be a high state of perfection. By the varieties of con- 
dition and development, the societies are made perfect. 
They are thus as one brotherhood, joined by mutual 
affections and actions, and perpetuated in goodness by 
the benign and gentle influences that proceed from the 
highest society to the lower ones, and from these to it 
again. 

The societies in the Second Sphere are very much to 
be admired, because of the perfect harmony which per- 
vades them, and the perfect melody and concert of 
rudimental and perfected knowledge which they mani- 
fest. In a corresponding manner does there exist a 
concert of action, a unity of feeling, and a universal 
love, one for another. 

The inhabitants do not couYcrse vocally^ but immerse 
their thoughts into one another by radiating them upon 
the countenance. And I perceive that thought enters 
the spirit by a process of hreathing^ or rather it is intro- 
duced by influx, according to the desires of those con- 
versing. They perceive thought by and through the 
eyes, inasmuch as these^ like the general countenance, 



190 A STELLAB KEY, 

are an index to the quality and workings of the interior. 
They seemingly liear each other converse ; bnt that is 
owing to a previous knowledge of sound by which 
words are distinguished and their meaning appre- 
hended. 

They perceive things without them by their sense of 
vision ; but they are conscious that it is the refiection 
which they perceive, and not the substance. Therefore, 
they exercise judgment concerning all they perceive — 
not judging from sensuous observation^ but from the 
character of the substance observed. 

I also discover that spirits in this Sphere approach 
and associate with each other according to the mutual 
aflinity subsisting between them, even as do the inhabi- 
tants of earth ; but the difference is in the mode of 
associating. ' Men on earth associate with one another 
by the guidance of their gross and rudimental senses, as 
these are productive of inclination and desire. Instead 
of this, men associate in this higher Sphere by a 
knowledge of each other*s inherent purity, and the state 
of each other's affections. 

Moreover, I perceive that the former experience of 
every person, both male and female, is treasured up in 
the memory, from which they can extract representa- 
tions of that which they previously knew or experi- 
enced. Every thing appears indelibly impressed upon 
the memory, and is mirrored forth with a vividness in 
proportion to the strength of the impression. There- 
fore, whatever thought enters the human mind on 
earth, becomes a resident in the memory, and is here 
brought forth with the appearance of newness that 
makes it both interesting and instructive. Those things 



THE SUZSIMER LAXD AS SEEN BY CLAIETOYAXCE. 191 

experienced whicli are disagreeable to tlie memory arc 
deposited in its depths and concealed from the view of 
any other being, by the prevalence of those events and 
experiences which it pleases the mind to remember, 
and which the mind takes delight in contemplating. 
Hence it is proper for all men on earth to do and think 
only that which pleases them most (according to wis- 
dom), and which they would most earnestly desire to 
remember ; and not to do those things, or encourage 
those thoughts, which are opposed to the superior 
delights of the mind. If this cannot be done in the 
present social and mental condition of the world, then j 
it is proper to change those conditions, so that even this J 
great good and pleasure may be obtained. 

"When spirits conversing appeal to each other's 
memory, the memory mirrors forth a perfect represen- 
tation of the thing remembered, which is perceived and 
understood by the conversing spirit. I behold beauti- 
ful representations in the memory of those in the higher 
societies. These representations are of the most exqui- 
site character, because they proceed from the memory 
of highly enlightened intellects ; and they are therefore 
delightful, inviting, and instructive. 

I perceive that every thing in this Sphere is created 
and manifested only by and through the exercise and 
direction of loisdom. Hence the perfect order and 
uniformity that subsist, and the inexpressible happiness 
that flows as a consequence from such exquisite har- 
mony and unity of action. Every thing is appreciated 
as a blessing conferred upon them by the light and life 
of Divine Love, and the order and form of Divine 
Wisdom. 



192 A STELLAR KEY. 

It is pleasing to behold tliese heavenly societies ; for 
I see them at this moment existing in the most perfect 
degree of brotherly love, and joined inseparably to- 
gether by constant ascending and descending affections. 
How very clear and bright are their countenances and 
expressions ! They are unblemished by artificiality, 
and unspotted by rudimental and gross intrusions — for 
they are above and superior to these, and highly de- 
veloped. The first society is indeed low, in compari- 
son to the hio;hest ; but the varietv and the deo:ree3 
nevertheless form of the whole a complete brotherhood. 
The diversity consists in the difterent degrees of de- 
velopment ; and the lowest cannot approach the high- 
est, because of the dissimilarity of quality and spheres. 
But the lowest crntains and involves the hio-hest, while 
the latter, in return, comprehends and pervades the 
whole Sphere, manifesting a grace and beauty beyond 
the power of language to describe. And there exists 
almost an infinite variety of dispositions, of loves, of 
aftections, and of wisdom, among them ; yet each modi- 
fication of previous conditions of mind is only an as- 
cending degree of refinement toward perfection. 

The whole is beautiful — surpassingly beautiful and 
sublime ! for there exists that continual emanation of 
love and wisdom from societies and individual forms, 
displaying a brilliancy of illumination beyond any light 
or color on earth. It is even so very bright and beauti- 
ful, that those in the lower societies who approach are 
almost thrown into ectasies of delight. They become 
prostrated, and apparently fall on their faces, because 
of the beauty and brilliancy of the aroma that encom- 
passes the superior societies of the spirit-home. 



THE SU:!yrMEE LAXD AS SEEN BY CLAIP.TOYA^"CE. 193 

Thus it is that all preserve an order in their lives 
and situations; and thns it is that their approach to 
each other is graduated according to the unfolding 
of the spiritual senses and faculties to the external. 
They represent the circular and spiral forms ; for 
there exists among them a uniform and also an as- 
cending movement. And one is continually unfold- 
ing the possessions of another, even as from the germ 
are unfolded the body and the flo^ver. And even as 
the flower perpetuates the species of the plant, so does 
the superior society pervade the lower ones, and is con- 
stantly introducing them into its own vast possessions ; 
and thus all go onward to a still higher Sphere of spirit- 
ual and intellectual elevation. 

9 



191 A STELLAE KEY. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

SYNOPSIS OF THE IDEAS PRESENTED. 

Coleridge's intellect must have been endowed with 
insight, for no poet ever more forcibly pictured the 
great truth of primordial developments : — 

'' Contemplant Spirits! ye that hover o'er 
With untired gaze the immeasurable fount 
Ebulhent with creative Deity I 
And ye of plastic power, that interfused 
Roil through the grosser and material mass 
In organizing surge 1 Holies of God !" 

The first goings forth or out-births from the great 
celestial Center are essential oceans of matter. These, 
after due elaboration or gestation, give birth to suns — 
and become cognizable to the outward senses of man. 
These suns become centers, or mothers, from which 
earths are born, with all the elements of matter, and 
each minutest particle infused with the vivifying, 
vitalizing spirit of the parent Formator. The Essences 
of heat or fire — electricity, etherium, ma-gnetism — are 
all the natural or outward manifestations of the pro- 
ductive energy, the vitalizing Cause of all existences. 
It pervades all substances, and animates all forms. 

The order of progression of solid matter is from the 
lower to the higher, from the crude to the refined, from 
the simple to the complicated, from the imperfect to the 



SYNOPSIS OF THE IDEAS PRESENTED. 195 

perfect — but in distinct degrees or congeries. That is, 
tlie lower mnst first be developed, to elaborate tbe 
materials and prepare the way for the higher. Thus, 
after the sun gave birth to the earth — and the same of 
all other planets — by the action of the vitality within 
the particles of matter, and its constant emanation in 
the form of heat, light, electricity, &c. — first from the 
great Central sphere to the sun, and thence to the 
earth, acting upon the granite and other rocks, witii 
the atmosphere, the water, and other compound and 
simple elements — ^new compounds were formed, possess- 
ing the vital principle in sufficient quantities to give 
definite forms, as crystallization, organization, motion, 
life, sensation, intelligence — the last being the highest 
or ultimate attribute of production on our earth, and 
possessed or reached to perfection only by man. 

A glance at the progress of matter in the production 
of our earth and its inhabitants, wall serve as an illus- 
tration of the same process and progress of worlds in 
the vast expanse of the universe, that are perpetually 
and incessantly being brought into existence, and ulti- 
mating the grand object of the whole — namely, to 
develop and perfect individualized, self-conscious, ever- 
existing, immortal spirits, that shall be in the " image 
and likeness " of the Central Cause, and dwell forever 
in the Summer Spheres of space. 

I now recapitulate the process of .the earth's origin. 
Within the circumference of the sun, elementary par- 
ticles of matter gather around a nucleus, which con- 
tinues to aggregate and increase in dimension and 
variety of parts, in its perpetual and endless revolutions 
and evolutions, gradually advancing toward the outer 



196 A STELLAB KEY. 

surface of this fiery orb, as it increases in complexity 
and density, until it approaches the extreme verge of 
the sun ; when, by the impetus or centrifugal force it 
has attained, from its more compact structure and con- 
sequent increase of specific gravity, it breaks loose from 
its parent and flies off at a tangent into illimitable 
space. If a ball of lead and another of cotton of the 
same size be tied each to a string, and whirled violently 
around until the strings break, the lead ball will fly off 
in almost a straight line, for a long distance, before it 
makes a curve toward the earth ; while the cotton ball 
will perform a graceful curve from the moment it 
breaks loose, and soon falls to the ground. The experi- 
ment will illustrate the movements of a planet, when, 
first thrown off from the sun (being much more dense) ; 
or, in other words, it will account for the eccentric 
movement of comets, which, in fact, are new-born and 
baby earths or planets. The extreme tenuity, fluidity, 
and rarefaction of its particles, and its consequent 
feeble cohesive attraction, and its irregular orbital 
and axillary movements, give the new earth elongated, 
attenuated, and many various forms, as presented to the 
beholder on another planet. Sometimes it happens 
that the caudal extremity gets so " long drawn out," 
and so far from the center of gravity — the proper 
polarity or axis not being yet fully established — that a 
part or parts become detached or broken off. The 
detached parts become meteoric bodies, or else " satel- 
lites," which continue to revolve around and within the 
orbit of the new earth. Oar earth has one belt of these 
meteoric j)arasites. Otlier planets several. 

In the lapse of ages, the attractive and repulsive, or 



SYNOPSIS OF THE IDEAS PEESEXTED. 197 

tlie centripetal and centriliigal forces becoine equalized, 
the particles of matter have formed more intimate asso- 
ciations, the outer surfaces have locked up a large por- 
tion of the free caloric vrithin the embrace of their own 
substance, and have consecjuently condensed and har- 
dened — a globular form has succeeded the oblate 
sphere, Tvith its spinal extremity, and a rcgidar orbit is 
detined and maintained. Oxygen and nitrogen have 
united in the proper proportions to form the atmo- 
sphere : oxygen and hydrogen have combined to form 
vrater ; oxygen and silicon have entered into an ada- 
mantine embrace to form quartz rock; oxygen and car- 
bon have formed a tripartite union with calcium, pro- 
ducing immense beds of carboniferous lime-stone. 
Xumerous other combinations of oxygen with gases, 
metals, and other elements — and these again combining 
with other simple or compound substances, have brought 
out of this vast amorphous mass of elementary materi- 
als, as they existed in an intensely heated and rarefied 
state, when first thrown ofi* from the sun, new, and 
more solid, and more permanent forms. 

In all this beautiful, harmonious, and ever-progres- 
sive plan of productive atnnities. oxygen plays a very 
conspicuous part, as a positive, energizing, vitalizing 
principle, electricity, Galvanism, and magnetism being 
difterent developments of the same principle. It 
appears to have grasped and to have held fast within 
its embrace the very germs of vitality. Phosphorus is 
another form of its tangible development, not yet 
understood by ciiemists or pliysiologists. Xo living- 
plant or animal can exist without it. It is always 
found in the seeds and germinal principles, and in the 



198 A STELLAR KEY. 

substances of the brain and nerves, but in no other part 
of vegetables or animals, as entering into an organic 
compound. 

In the course of time, when " the waters had sub- 
sided," the heat and light emanating continually from 
the sun — upon the waters of the seas, and in rain, and 
mist, and dew — acted upon the surfaces of the granite 
and other rocks, abrading, decomposing, and uniting 
with their elements to produce other new compounds 
of a more refined and perfect nature. Thus, large beds 
of gelatinous matter were formed in shallow pools 
beneath the water level, and a slimy coating upon the 
surfaces of the rocks above the water. [See Great 
Harmonia^ vol. 5, Part III.] Thus soil was first 
formed — a preparation, elaboration, and combination 
of material, susceptible of developing vegetable life, 
marine and terrestrial. The first vegetable forms 
springing from these slimy rocks were simple, and not 
defined in their structure, being lichens, or cryptoga- 
mous plants, about seventy per cent, of whose substance 
is gelatin. 

As one forcible evidence of the fact of vegetables first 
originating from the elements of the rock on which they 
germinate, and from the heat, light, atmosphere, and 
moisture, is, that each rock of different chemical com- 
position, when exposed to these influences, will produce 
a moss peculiar to itself, and the same rock, in any 
latitude where it can grow, will always produce a plant 
of the same species, and each plant in its turn, of the 
thousands- of classes, orders, genera, species, and varie- 
ties now in existence, will invariably produce an ani- 
malcule^ or insect, peculiar to itself. These are facts 



SYNOPSIS OF THE IDEAS PRESENTED. 199 

that liave been abundantly substantiated by the most 
scientific naturalists of the age. 

The first forms of vegetation were brought into 
being, and perfected in their kind — elaborating from 
their own substance a germ or nucleus of vitality with 
the impress of its own individuality, inclosed within a 
receptacle capable of preserving and sustaining it, till 
the favorable action of the elements (in heat, light, 
moisture, and the soil) could bring forth from each 
germ or seed " an image and likeness" of its parent — 
the organized substance or body of the original plant, 
having performed the ultimate object of its existence, 
dies, and the elements of which it is composed mingle 
with the thin soil on the surface of the rocks, adding 
to its substance, increasing its complexity, and refi- 
ning its particles ; so that, with the return of the vernal 
equinox, and the genial rays of the sun, not only 
the seeds of the old lichen unfold and expand into the 
same species, but a new and more complicated plant, 
with distinct and marked differences (perhaps a fern), 
makes its appearance, and rears its graceful stem, and 
spreads its glossy foliage above the lowly moss. 

Thus the ever-present and ever-active principle of 
vitality and creative Energy, acting and reacting upon 
the materials of our globe, started the kingdoms of 
Nature, which have and will ever continue to progress 
— from the simple to the more complicated vegetable 
forms : animalculse, infusia, radiata, mollusca, verte- 
brata, and Man as the Ultimate. The lowest and 
imperfect first, and the more complex and perfect after, 
in regular progression, but in distinct degrees. Each 
new type being dependent upon all that preceded it for 



200 A STELLAE KEY. 

its existence, but vet distinct and different from its pre- 
decessors. 

Tlins it requires certain conditions, proportions, and 
combinations of elementary inorganic substances to 
produce a vegetable — and vegetable growth is dependent 
entirely upon elementary regimen — while animals can- 
not be produced or sustained in their existence by 
inorganic or elementary matter. The organic com- 
pounds of the blood, muscular fiber, gelatin, skin, liair, 
nails, or horns, drc, are all formed in exact constituents 
or proportions from the elementary particles that enter 
into their composition from the vegetable. The vegeta- 
ble kingdom must, therefore, have existed hefore the 
animal — the vegetable realm being the stepping-stone, 
or connecting-link, between the elementary or mineral 
kingdom and the animal. Hence, if the vegetable 
kingdom should by any cause be blotted out from tlie 
face of the earth, the animal would soon be annihilated. 

Each type of the endless variety of inorganic and 
organized substances is but a link in the great chain 
of cause and elfect, and each type or species is so marked 
and distinct as easily to be distinguished, and each 
variety and unity of the human species is so indelibly 
stamped with its own perfected individuality as to be 
recognized from the myriads of the same species. 

Thus fixed, unvarying, and universal laws of the 
Father govern and regulate all his universe. Through- 
out all the ramifications of the spiiitual, physical, and 
celestial, eternal unity, order, and harmony reigns — con- 
ception, development, progression, and perfection mark 
all things, and all point with irresistible force of reason 
and demonstration to the immortality of the Spirit. 



STXOPSIS OF THE IDE^S PRESENTED. 201 

lu taking this philosophical view of the plan and 
progress of Nature and the works of God, how grand, 
how sublime, how comprehensive, how rational and 
satisfactory — to the independent-thinking and inquiring 
mind, who wishes to '' have a reason for the faith that 
is within him " — how perfectly are the love and wisdom 
and justice of the Father and Mother conjugated and 
disj)layed ! And how real, conclusive, and overwhelm- 
ing the evidence — appealing directly to the senses, the 
intellect, and the affections — of the self-conscious, 
immortal existence and progressive happiness of the 
" spirit" that is within us ! The human race being the 
last and highest development of earth, and mind the 
only organism possessing reason and intelligence that 
examines and investigates all that is beneath and around 
itself, and that has a consciousness of the future — 
endeavoring to raise or draw aside the thin, semi- 
transparent vail that hangs suspended between the 
physical and spiritual existence — analogy, " reasoning 
from what we know," points directly not only to the 
probability, but to the absolute certainty and necessity 
of a future existences called the Summer Land. 

All organic forms below man not only produce their 
like, but the substance of their material forms mingle 
with previously formed compounds, to produce a new 
and distinct tyi^e superior to itself. But the human 
type has no superior developraent^ and there is no retro- 
gression in the works of Is'ature. Each new unfolding 
is superior to the preceding. Man, then, is destined 
for other and higher Spheres. In those Spheres, or 
new states of existence, man's spirit must present not 
only an ^* image and likeness " of Xature and God, but 

9* 



202 A STELLAR KEY. 

a consciousness of identity and individual selfhood. 
I eeling and knowing this, he should so live while in 
this rudimentary and preparatory state of existence, 
that all his physical, intellectual, moral, and spiritual 
structure, formation, growth, and maturity, be fully 
developed, cultivated, and perfected ; so that when the 
^'mortal puts on immortality," and seeks " a home in 
the heavens," it can expand into a celestial life, without 
spot or blemish to mar its beauty or impede its progress 
in bliss and glory eternal. 



THE END. 



r^ 



JUST PUBLISHED. 



A VOICE FROM THE IMER LIFE-A NEW WORK, 



BY 



ANDEEW JACKSON DAVIS: 

ENTITLED 

ARABULA; 



OK, 



THE DIVINE GUEST. 



This new volume, just published in first-rate style, is, to some extent, 
a sequel to the "MAGIC STAFF," the Author's Autobiography. 

THE ARABULA 

Is an entirely new work from the Ixterior; being at ODce a biogTaphical 
and a spiritual production. It is a volume of over 400 pages, and con- 
tains inspirations from the following new Saints : St. Rishis, St. Menu, 
St. Confucius, St. Siamer, St. Syrus, St. Gabriel, St. John, St. Pneuma, 
St. James, St. Gerrit, St. Theodore, St. Octavius, St. Samuel, St. Eliza, 
St. Emma, St. Ralph, St. Asaph, St. Mary, St. Selden, St. Lotta. 

WILLIAM WHITE & CO., 

158 Washingtok Street, Boston, Mass. 



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an Exponent of the Spiritual Philosophy of the Nineteenth 

Century. 



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THE CHILDREN'S 

Progressive Lyceum. 

A MANUAL, 

With directions for the Organization and Management of Sunday-Schools, 
adapted to the Bodies and Minds of the Young, and containing Rules, 
Methods, p]xercises, Marches, Lessons, Questions and Answers, Invoca- 
tions, Silver- Chain Recitations, Hymns and Songs. 

Original and Selected* 

By ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS. 



" A pebble in the streamlet scant 

Has changed the course of many a river; 
A dew-drop on the baby plant 

Has warped the giant oak forever." 



• The Lyceum externally is a work of art — its '^mblems all bearing 
a beautiful meaning — every color having its own diviue significance — 
every badge telling the story of its group, aud every group indicating 
cue step higher in progress. The pretty picturesque targets all point 
to the top of the mountain, " Liberty " farthest up the ascent, with the 
white badge fluttering wing-like upward, and beckoning to the little 
ones at the "Fountain" to gather up their ribbons (red, like the heart- 
glow of childhood), and follow to that pearly gate, where the angels 
wait to let them in. Religion is natural — this is one of its most natural 
expressions, leading to harmony, love, and happiness. 

" Suffer little children to come unto me," said the gentle Xazarene,. 
" for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Is it strange then that one 
lovely constellation of pure little ones should attract to us the holiest 
and most divine influences ? If any doubt that this Lyceum movement 
is an inspiration, let them stand among the Groups a single day; let them 
feel the holy influences that fall in showers from the higher spheres, 
the uprisings of the soul, as involuntarily it answers to the call from its 
true home, the inspirations that fall upon the heart like angel breath- 
ings, thrilling each string with melody, and fiUing the whole being with 
a yearning for God and Heaven. 

Price, per copy, 80 cents, and 8 cents postage if sent by mail ; and 
for 100 copies, $63.00. 

Address the Publisher, 



:0 :^3 Xa .^ IML Jk^lEt. s 



? 



No. 14 BROMFIELD ST., BOSTON. 



>\EW PAPER FOR CHILDEEX. 



THE 

LYCEUM BANNER. 

PUBLISHED TWIOE A MONTH, 

BY 

]\IES. L. H. KIMBALL. 
Edited bv ]Mrs. H. F. M. Brown. 



It is an OCTATO, printed on good paper, and embellished with fine electrotrpe 
illustrations. 

Some of our best writers are engaged as regular contributors. 

"VTe teach no human creeds : Xature is our law-giver : to deal justly our relisrion. 

The children want Amusement. Historr. Eomance. 2»[usic — they want Moral, 
Mental, and Physical Cuitui-e. We hope to aid them in their search for these 
treasures. 

And at the Fourth lifational Convention of Spiritualists, held at CleA-eland, Ohio, 
September 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th, 1S67. it was 

'"BesoJi'td, That this Convention recognize the permanency and force of early 
religious impressions, and the importance of keeping the minds of our children and 
youth untrammeled by theological tenets, and that Ave do earnestly recommend to the 
Spiritualists of America the institution known as the Children's Progressive Lyceum, 
and ask them to sustain it by their sympathy and means until the development of our 
philosophy shall enable us to secure' a more efhcient means of education.'' 

At the same Convention, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted: 

^^WTiereas. The Lyceum interests are of such vast importance in the work of 
progi-ess ; and 

"Whereas^ An interchange of views with regard to the management and various 
exercises connected with this great educational movement: therefore. 

"F.esolrecL That the Convention recommend the establishment of a Lyceum 
Statistical Bureau, for the pm-pose of interchanging thoughts relative to this work, 
and that we recommend the 

'•LYCEUM BA2s'XEE AS THE OEGAX OF THAT BUEEAU."' 



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Address, 

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P. 0. Drawer 5956, Chicago, 111. 



OF THE 



BY 

ANDKEW JACKSON DAVIS. 



Just published, a beautiful, compact, yet comprebensive 
little volume, containing all necessary instructions for 

CHILDHEN'S mOGUESSIVE LYCEU3IS. 

These attractive institutions, known as Spiritualistic Sun- 
day-Schools, have multiplied rapidly during the past year. 
Adults as well as children seem to take equal interest in the 
proceedings of these Lyceums. 

In this Manual will be found Rules ^ Marches^ Lessons^ Invo- 
cations, Silver Chain Recitations, Hymns and Songs, Spirit- 
ualists, and Friends of Progress generally, can now take im- 
mediate steps in behalf of the true Physical and Sxnritual 
education of their Children, at about one-half the price of the 
unabridged edition. 

The above work is comprised in a volume of 158 pages, 
32mo, It is printed on good paper, and neatly bound in 
cloth. 

Price, per copy, 44 cents, and 4 cents postage if sent by 
mail; for 12 copies, $4.56; and for 100 copies, $34. 

Address the Publisher, 

BELA MARSH, 

No. 14 Bromfield Street, Boston. 



DEPOT FOE LYCEUM EQUIPMENTS, 

E. WATERS & sons, 

ISTo. 303 River Street, Troy, N. Y. 

A CHILDEEX^S PEOGRESSIYE LYCEUM, ^-hen fully organized, in accordance 
with the recently developed system, requires the following equipments : — 

TWELVE TAEGETS, with title and number of group, and age of the members, 
-beautifully printed on each side, with twelve smoM silk flags (10x15) for each 
target below the staff, mounted, ready for use. Each target corresponds in- color 
to the color of the badges worn by the members of the group. These targets are 
firmly fixed in staffs five feet and four inches long, with a joint in the center; a 
brad in the lower end to fasten in the floor, and worsted galloon strings to tie the 
staff to the top of a chair or settee in the hall. We put in the strings so that 
they may be fastened to the staff's at the proper height. (For instructions, sig- 
nifications, &c., see the ''Manual.'') 

TWELVE DOZEN PEIXTED COTTON FLAGS, Stars and Stripes, of three 
different sizes, to suit different ages of the children. The smallest flasrs on red 
staffs, three feet long ; the next size on blue staffs, three feet six inches long ; 
the largest on black walnut — stained — four feet long, carried by the higher 
groups. 

TWELVE SILK FLAGS (20x80), for Leaders. These beautiful flags are fastened 
on black walnut staffs, four feet nine inches long. The Leaders should carry 
handsomely mounted banners to distinguish them when marching. 

ONE LAEGE SILK FLAG (36x54), for the Guardian of the groups, on a staff six 
feet long, surmounted with an appropriate ornament. 

TWELVE BADGES, appropriate for principal ofiicers and their assistants, arranged 
in a strong paper box, properly labeled. 

TWELVE DOZEN SILK BADGES, in durable labeled boxes, for leaders and 
members of the groups, in different colors, and differently ornamented. (For 
methods, meaning, &c., see the •'Manual."'') 

CONDUCTOE'S BATON, black walnut stained, handsomely mounted with gilt 
ornaments. 

TICKETS OF MEMBEESHIP, handsomely printed in two colors, one ticket for 
each member. 

A LYCEUM MANUAL (the abridged edition), for each officer, leader, and member, 
so that all may participate in the beautiful Songs, Hymns, Silver-Chain Eecita- 
tions, &c. 

A GUAEDIAN'S JOUKNAL, properly ruled and classified according to groups, and 
well bound. 

6E0UP BOOKS, for Leaders, one dozen in different colors, and properly ruled. 

EEWAEDS OF MEEIT, of several varieties, furnished at short notice. 

BOOKS OF MS. MUSIC, for all the songs in Manual. 

A BANNEE CHEST, with tray for badges and manuals, is indispensable — five feet 
and two inches long and eighteen inches square, inside measure ; with lid to open 
back and level, supported by slides, to serve as a table on which to arrange the 
flags. This chest is furnished with a good lock and two or three keys — one for 
Conductor and one for each of the Guards. 

And finally, A LIBEAEY of valuable and entertaining books, free from sectarian- 
ism, adapted to children and young people generally. (The residents of every 
community have books appropriate to such a library, which they will doubties.s 
freely contribute, if kindly invited to do so.) 

J^^ The undersigned will be happy to respond by letter and circular to ques- 
tions relative to the organization and government of these attractive schools. 

^pW The foregoing list of equipments (whole or in part), with the exception 

of books for the library, may be obtained at the most reasonable prices, by addressing 

803 Biver St., Troy, N. Y. 



FBOSPECTUS 

der 

von dem amerikanischen Seher und Verkiindiger der 
^'Harmonischen Philosophie" 

ANDKEW JACKSO.\ DATIS 

in der 

Beihenfolge ihrer Yerofifentlichung in Xord-Amerika erschienenen und 
mit Autorisation ihres Yerfassers 

eines Theils von 

dem im J"ah.re 185S -srerstorlDeiien. 

Prasidenten der Kaiserlich Leopoldinisch-Carolinischen Akademie der 
Naturforscher zu Breslau, 

|oftss0r ir. Cljristiau ^ottfm^ ptfs ton €stmtX 

und andern Theils von 
dessert uNlitarlDeiter Tzind Heransgeber 

Gregop Constantin Wittig, 

aus dem Englischen in's Deutsche iibersetzten Werke. 



These volumes, as fast as translated iDto the German language, will be 
forwarded to America, and can be obtained at the offices of 

WILLIA3I WHITE & CO., 

158 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, MASS., OR, 
544 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 

TjETJE; HABMOXIA, 4th vol., ^^ THE BEFOBJIEB.^^ 

ALSO 

THE MAGIC STAFF, an Autobiography. 
Price of each, $2.t5. Postage, 32 cts. 



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